To Have and to Hold

To Have and to Hold is a figurative landscape where the human form is fractured, shimmering and multifaceted as if existing in a suspended space and time or another realm, in a Renaissance landscape setting.

The young woman is a subject I am revisiting from some time ago as her demeanour always intrigues.  Her enigmatic presence creates inner dialogue, but this time I have transported her into a Renaissance landscape, an unfamiliar landscape befitting her mysterious persona.

An old saying, To Have and to Hold has reference to so many aspects in our lives.  The girls youth and the manner she clutches her pet has reference to holding onto innocence, or is it just a symbolic metaphor that denotes to a physical embrace of a couple.  To receive without reservation the total self gift of the other, but in this sense it is not a statement of ownership but rather a promise of unconditional acceptance. It could also refer to self awareness, self possession and acceptance of the self.

The soft accents on the skin tones of the subject is also to symbolise the fragility of human nature and the impermanence of our being.  How in the timeline of this earth we are all too soon just memories within the landscape and the importance of what we need to hold onto and what we need to let go.

This painting is expressively painted in oils on canvas where the strong illuminated colours of the background envelope the figure as if presenting as an apparition.

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My formal art training began at Queensland College of Art studying Visual Communication and Graphic Design as well as filmmaking. I later won a scholarship at the Australian Film and Television School and pursued a filmmaking career for 18 years and finally returned with a passion for visual arts.
During my art/painting practice in these past 30 years I have experimented with many mediums and in all genres, but what continues to hold my interest and where I consistently revisit is the landscape and objects within the landscape. I also like to explore the concept of dual worlds where order and chaos compete with each other - where the representational morphs into elements of abstraction.
A lot of my figurative landscapes are allegorical set against sweeping abstracted skies which set the stage for the drama to unfold. My work practise finds my doing a lot of research and preliminary paint sketches and the ideas may come from a piece of poetry, mythology, ancient history or from my own photography. In recent years I have been preoccupied with 18th century Baroque and Rococo eras.
I have been fortunate to have been selected as a finalist in the National Still Life Art Prize for the past 6 years as well as winning landscape and portrait awards in the Coffs Harbour and Sawtell Art Prizes over the past 12 years. In 2019 my painting was featured in the Television Series, The Block.