Lunch 1: Seychelles

This painting is the first in a ongoing series (that I sometimes work on) inspired by lunch. When I make my lunch, I like to focus on colours. I figure that a lunch which looks good and full of colour, is probably healthier, fresher and tastier than one that's not. If lunch looks good, it can lift me mentally, and that sometimes makes my day. I feel better when I look at it, when I eat and then when I paint it. It's a bit of light relief and brings a focus to the beauty of the everyday.
Sometimes the combination of colours, or textures, or the objects that I choose to paint, remind me of something else. In this case the colours of the Seychelles flag. So that's what I've gone with for this painting. For the record lunch that day was: whole grain crackers with Jalapeño dip; thinly sliced cheese; cucumbers and home grown tomatoes picked that morning from my garden.

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I am an artist who has run an e-bike business from home for the past 15 years while raising three children and loves most things about living in the “People’s Republic of O’connor” (Inner North, Canberra). I graduated with an MBA (Strategic Operations Management) from Charles Stuart University a long time ago and a BA in Visual Arts (Painting) from the Australian National University a very, very, long, long time ago.
There are a couple of underlying, reoccurring and interrelated themes that inform my art practice and bubble to the surface of my paintings (both implicitly or explicitly) from time to time.
The first of these themes is the idea of ‘desire lines’. In urban and transport planning ‘desire lines’ refer to the unofficial paths that collective feet make through the landscape over time. These well-trodden paths are both subversive, being illicit, and conversely, the path of least resistance. Desire Lines are paths that form themselves and are evidence of both humanity and the impact of humans in the environment.
Secondly, I use the landscape, and elements within the landscape, to explore what I’m thinking about ‘in the moment’. The moment (or muse) can include an emotion or idea, such as gratitude to a friend or joy in life’s journey.
Often, the inspiration for a painting, is a personal reaction to the zeitgeist and current bigger picture concerns.
A third related theme is an interest in, and love of exercise, and being outdoors.
Finally related to all of the above, it's impossible to paint landscapes, or places or people (in fact anything) without having some awareness in and reaction to climate change and our role in it, so as inferred above, this is also a frequently occurring theme throughout my paintings. I hope my paintings inspire others to actively explore the world around them, as well as their relationship to it.