Oil on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the front.

This artwork comes with an external frame

The Strange Allure of the Mornington Peninsula Foreshore Reserve Footy Oval/ Caravan Park. Circa ‘70’s, 80’s.
A recently discovered release by a local band, Hot Tubs Machine, ‘Street Fighter Man’, got me thinking.
A song about holidays in a caravan park on the Mornington Peneinsula.
It set off a series of rambling memories of summer holidays on the Mornington Peninsula in the 70’s and 80’s, back in the days when it was still sort of the country, before Safety Beach became blighted with suburban sprawl.
Paddocks, coastal woodlands and scrub would roll down to the beach, Mount Eliza and Arthurs Seat would stand sentinel.
The rolling hills, the paddocks, would be green, rich fertile soils, generous rainfall.
The fertile hills, then the casual wealth of Sorrento and Point Nepean.
The family car would roll past the Sorrento Pub, inside would be beautiful young things, poor little rich boys, poor little rich girls getting trashed by mid day.
Myself, a teenage boy sitting on the beach with the family during the summer, a vista of endless availability, just not for me though. (LOL).
Every party I went to, there was always a sense there was a better party out there somewhere… on the Mornington Peninsula no doubt… (LOL).
Midnight Oil captured the vibe in ‘Power and the Passion’.
“People, wasting away in paradise”
“Sunburnt faces around, with skin so brown
Smiling zinc cream and crowds
Sundays the beach never a cloud
Breathing eucalypt, pushing panel vans
Stuff and munch junk food laughing at the truth”.
I knew I needed to do a painting of a caravan park, old caravans and somewhere a panel van, colloquially known as an F- truck.
Inevitably my thoughts turned to the story of alcoholic tragedy and Charles Conder of the Heidelberg School, 1868- 1909.
He married in 1900 but was dead from a combination of Syphilis and alcoholism within 9 years.
It reminded me of one of the Heidelberg Schools most curious paintings, a painting that seems to capture the essence of the Mornington Peninsula but in a counter melody kind of way.
‘The Sunny South’, by Tom Roberts, a group of young men skinny dipping at Ricketts Point.
At first glance it appears to be three lads engaged in some good clean fun at the beach, but on closer inspection, Roberts has captured a fascinating network of voyeurism and exhibitionism.
I wonder which one was Charles Conder?
Anyway, moving on to my other fascinating distraction for the week, the autobiography of Matthew Perry.
He’s relevant here because he sort of captures the essence of the poor little rich things getting trashed in Sorrento (even if he’s never been there).
Matthew Perry is my favorite star of the almost star.
I’ve always found ‘Friends’ almost watchable, while I wait for Big Bang to start at 8pm.
It made Perry into an almost star, bringing him roles in films that were almost block busters.
I find his ‘almost but not quite’ career reassuring.
Apparently he almost dated Jennifer Anniston but when she reciprocated his interest, he cancelled her due to anxiety.
On the last page, he says he is writing his autobiography while living in rental accommodation, after a string of ex-wives and kids he’s single and living alone.
A pack of Marlboro’s in his back pocket.
A colostomy bag near at hand because he has so damaged his bowel from opioid use.
I find all that likable and reassuring, my bad I guess.