It has always been my mantra up until lately to paint what I see. I am now venturing into images that are not possible to see without turning your head. This is easy enough just to extend the horizon as long as the foreground only shows one shoreline or one manmade object such as a bridge in the foreground. The 180 degrees can only be seen by an eagle or an artist.

For this painting Naarm which is the aboriginal name for the area known as Melbourne, I was on the 84 story of the Eureka Tower and took around 50 photographs. I was very excited. Because of the high elevation, I needed to straighten every building in my image that wasn’t centered in the photos. 

It was also a remarkable find to discover within the photos the portrait of William Barak the last Elder of the Yarra Yarra tribe on one of the buildings. I didn’t know of its existence until I was painting it. The building is specially constructed with white concrete verandahs and it is the shadows within the verandahs that create his face.

On show at Monsalvat 20th Dec – 14th Jan
All welcome, free event; RSVP essential
more info