Home Thoughts

Home Thoughts, 2022, diptych, acrylic on MDF, 10 x 10 cm (each panel).

Further to Blog Post Wednesday, March 2, here is my completed painting for the upcoming One Hundred Faces exhibition at Playing in the Attic. 

The work has since acquired a name: Home Thoughts, extracted from the title of Robert Browning’s poem, Home Thoughts, from Abroad (1845), the one that begins:

O, to be in England 

Now that April’s there…

You can read the poem HERE.

Home Thoughts, 2022 (detail, panel 1 of 2)

In recent years, swans have become emblematic of home. I grew up in Melbourne in the 1950s and 60s and well remember visits with my parents to its lush Royal Botanic Gardens. Feeding the black swans that inhabit the ornamental lakes (an activity now frowned upon) became something of a ritual. 

Home Thoughts, 2022 (detail, panel 2 of 2)

In the 1970s I lived for several years in the UK. The swans in London‘s public parks, including elegant Regent’s Park, were a glorious, gleaming white, the stuff of my childhood fairy tales. But the black swans of Australia were never far from my thoughts, and in 1980 I returned to Melbourne.

From 2011, I began dividing my time between Melbourne and Ballarat. Since moving full time to the latter in 2019, I’ve become increasingly drawn to the black swans on Lake Wendouree and visit them frequently. I now call Ballarat home, yet the white swans of England remain fixed in my memories. Home, they say, is where the heart is and mine, it seems, will always be divided in two. 

Playing in the Attic

13 Ballaarat Street

Talbot VIC 3371

Opening hours: Friday - Monday, 10 am - 4 pm

One Hundred Faces is held in conjunction with the Tiny Towns Arts Trail on Anzac Day long weekend, Friday 22 April - Monday 26 April, and continues for a further six weeks. 

Photography by Tim Gresham.

Christmas Beetle Woman

My latest unnatural history painting (pictured above) introduces Christmas Beetle Woman, a recently discovered homo-insecta which evolved from Anoplognathus chloropyrus, one of Australia’s most striking Christmas beetles. As their name implies, these beetles are most prevalent around Christmas time. This particular species and sub-species flourishes in the Murray-Darling basin, the Great Dividing Range and coastal areas of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.

Christmas Beetle Woman may have emerged a tad early for Christmas, but was completed in the nick of time for Christmas in July. It’s taken until now to post these images, however, as late July also marked the beginning of the 2016 Melbourne International Film Festival, which I’ve been attending a daily basis. (In fact, this was posted in between screenings).

Pictured top: fully evolved Christmas Beetle Woman (2016, acrylic on wood panel, 32 x 30 cm).

Pictured below: selected stages in the painting's development.

Below, a layer of thin protective varnish is applied before adding final details to the work:

The work nearing completion (Ballarat studio, July, 2016):

Scarab Beetle Woman

Inspired by the splendid scarab beetle, a new painting is penciled in: Scarab Beetle Woman, pictured below with my primary source material, a superbly illustrated feature on scarabs in a vintage copy of National Geographic, unearthed at the local thrift shop in Abbotsford:

Further developmental views, concluding with the completed work: 

Work in progress accompanied by a favourite reference book that says it all

Scarab Beetle Woman alongside an illustration from the same issue of National Geographic

- an enlarged, rarely seen frontal view of the spectacular Chrysina macropus 

Completed Scarab Beetle Woman, 2016, acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm.

Fully formed Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman

A rainbow-hued Homo-insecta is released from her warm cocoon into the cold, grey Australian winter:

Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm

Pictured above: completed Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, followed by further progress views. (See also previous post).

Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on wood, 32 x 23 cm

An emerging Homo-insecta: Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman

Of all the Homo-insecta we have been documenting of late, Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman is surely among the most beautiful. She is also proving to be one of the most challenging to capture, if only in paint on wood. We hope we can eventually do her justice.

Pictured above are some early progress views of Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata Beetle Woman (2015, pencil, gesso and acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm). She evolved from the rainbow-hued jewel beetle Metaxymorpha nigrofasciata, which you can view HERE.

A Box of Beetles and a Line of Insect Women

A Box of Beetles was a recent lucky find in Horton Books, a favourite Melbourne bookstore. Located in Smith Street, Collingwood, it’s fairly local to our Melbourne place. Sadly, after 15 years in the area, Horton Books will close its doors in July. It’s a great shame to see the demise of another independent bookshop, particularly when it’s as special as this one.

Meanwhile, the diminutive treasure chest pictured below will provide me with rich and varied source material for a long time to come.

The Box of Beetles yields some of its treasures

As I research my next Homo-insecta works, here is the story so far, at least for the paintings on wood:

The first nine Homo-insecta paintings (acrylic on wood panels, 2015). Studio view, late June.

Nascent Luna Moth Woman

Further stages in the transfiguration of Actias luna moth to Luna Moth Woman.

Emerging Luna Moth Woman

Early progress views of Luna Moth Woman, 2015, pencil, gesso and acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm:

Blue Bottle Fly Woman, Part 1

Currently being documented in the studio: Bluebottle Fly Woman, a recently discovered Homo-insecta. She evolved from the Northern Bluebottle fly, a species of common Blow Fly (scientific name: Protophormia terraenovae). More about these much-maligned flies can be found HERE.

Several stages up the evolutionary scale from pesky (and exceedingly stupid) Blowies, Bluebottle Fly Woman is not only beautiful, but also extremely bright.

In April 2015 an enlightening and stunningly photographed documentary, The Great Australian Fly screened on Australian ABC television which corrected a number of misconceptions about flies. For details, go HERE.

Pictured below: Initial stages of Bluebottle Fly Woman, 2015, pencil, gesso and acrylic on wood, 32 x 30 cm.

Plusiotis victorina Beetle Woman, Part 3

Plusiotis victorina Beetle Woman, 2015, acrylic on wood, 32 x 22 cm

The Homo-insecta Plusiotis victorina Beetle Woman (captured in the newly completed painting directly above) evolved from a species of jewel scarab that is native to Mexico.

Respectively above and below are the front cover and a double page spread from an old copy of National Geographic (February 2001) that I recently unearthed in a Melbourne thrift shop. It will give some idea of the shimmering beauty and extraordinary diversity of these insects. Plusiotis victorina can be seen first on the left, second row from the top.

A visit to the University of Nebraska’s Division of Entomology website is highly recommended. For a more detailed view of individual Scarabs, go to their web page: Generic Guide to New World Scarab Beetles. A page devoted entirely to Plusiotis victorina (AKA Chrysina victorina) is HERE.