It's been a long time since my last post.... having literally worked myself into a corner with the last series of work I was left with not much to say. I turned to the landscape as subject for the second part of 2006 as a way to continue making art, exploring new ways of working without being too focused on subject matter or outcomes. Yet I would be less than honest if I said that I didn't care that I only made a handful of finished works over this time. At the beginning of 2007 I turned back to the nude as departure point and the work finally started to open up. The new work is like the work I made in high school, only underpinned with a 20 years' experience.
The new series 'Simulacrum' is an (unconscious) nod to many artists whose work I admire, Bret Whitely, Picasso and Bacon. The works are organic in nature, there is no planning, no sketches or working drawings, as the work takes form I am inevitably reminded that we cannot escape the influence of artists before us and that these influences are recontextualised in this contemporary setting. A different friend has sat for each work, the intimate, open environment and the interaction with each person informs the final work and this also makes the creative process charged and special to me. I continue to work toward a show at Simmer in the Bay, The Rocks, Sydney at the end, Opening 29th May.