Occean 2004 and Occean11 2005

I have reduced the content of this exhibition to just two works. This is a decision made following on from my first exhibition in this series Occean at Raft 2 in Parap 2004 that was part of my MVA project. Occean was exploratory, following a range of trajectories through which I was searching for a means to express the light and texture of the Top End marine environment. At this point in time my research was widely spread, and eclectic in nature, exploring Western colonial associations with the sea, European mythological contrasted with Australian Indigenous connections with sea country. I also explored or questioned ideas of faith in a multicultural climate. At this point both the paper and the paintings were searching for form, yet the paper did not support the journey of the painting. This prior research, both studio practice and earlier draft of my exegesis provide the groundwork for the latter half of my MVA project.

Occean II reduces the content of the exhibition to a dialogue between two paintings. These paintings evolve directly out of the methods and structures explored in Occean.

The dark painting ‘Nocturnal Light’ directly references Marc Rothko, his veils of colour and luminous voids. I relate to the connection of Rothko’s work to a Romantic Sublime. In this painting there is no black, however the darkness is made from veils of colour which contain a degree of warmth. The darkness of the horizon consists of layered alizarin crimson and indigo blue. The void this creates against the more translucent dark sea is intended to create a zone that sinks into the canvas. Whilst I am referencing Western art history in this work it directly arises from the observation of Top End sea at night, in this case particularly from the Nightcliff foreshore.

The light painting directly responds to Will Stubb’s the co-ordinator of Buku-Larrngay Mulka Arts at Yirrkala expression of being in Gulf country.

What happens is that all sense of division is lost between the water, your eyes, the sky, the sand underneath the water, the horizon and the humid air you breathe... The sea is like distilled sky and the sky like shining water. The horizon can’t be felt anymore. Your heart jumps with joy at the beauty of the world (Stubbs, 2003: 10).

This quote was the starting point and the inspiration for this painting as my own experiences of flight in Gulf country, and my elevated emotions arising from the beauty of light over water. This painting references not only the waters of the Gulf, but also is sourced from the local environment, my studio at Darwin High, Bullocky point, and the rocks off Progress Drive, Nightcliff. Here the waters are shallow and with a light wind and an incoming tide, roll toward the shore in sweeping curves. This is a combined landscape in the same way the Piguenit’s A Mountain Top Tasmania, combined several mountainous views. I have combined the undulating sandbar of Numbulwar with the texture of local Darwin waters, and aim to express in my colour range the palette of the Top End.