Swan Song - a progress view

On the drawing board, above right, is my current work in progress, Swan Song (ink, gouache, water soluble graphite and watercolour, 76.5 x 56 cm). The small study on the left, a finished work in its own right, was made in my tiny Melbourne hotel room last August between screenings at the 2019 Melbourne International Film Festival. Shane and I had recently sold our respective houses in Melbourne and Ballarat after buying a house in Ballarat East, the first home we’ve owned together. At this watershed time, we were awaiting settlement and Ballarat was very much on my mind. As its title implies, Swan Song marks an ending, without which there can be no new beginnings. 

The black swan is a personal signifier for home, initially associated with childhood visits with my parents to the Melbourne Botanical Gardens from our family home in nearby St.Kilda. Nowadays I can’t see a swan without thinking of the black swans on Ballarat’s Lake Wendouree.

My Swan Song to MIFF 2019

Swan Song, ink and gouache on Khadi paper, 21 x 15 cm

As recent visitors to this blog will be aware, recently I balanced a particularly busy MIFF 2019 schedule with drawing in my Melbourne hotel room, AKA, pop-up studio, every chance I got. Completed on the last day of MIFF, the drawing pictured above was my swan song. Given the number of films I saw (52, at last count) I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of work I achieved, when not travelling the world on my Festival Passport. It was a pleasure to share parts of the journey with Gracia Haby, Louise Jennison, Shane Jones, Elaine Haby, Gaye Paterson, Des Cowley, Kirsty and Sue. 

The final day’s fare comprised a talk at the Wheeler Centre by Australian born film director Bruce Beresford, in conversation with Philippa Hawker (the restored print of his Black Robe, 1991, screened on the penultimate day of the festival, was a revelation). I believe the talk was filmed, hopefully in its entirety. In a festival that presented so many fine films, this event was one of the standouts. To learn more about Beresford and his extraordinary achievements (including Breaker Morant, 1980, one of my longtime favourite films, go HERE.

My last two MIFF films were Beanpole (dir. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2019), followed by an encore screening of The Nightingale (dir. Jennifer Kent, Australia, 2018), an extremely powerful note to end on.

Progress views of the work I undertook during the Melbourne International Film Festival, peppered with selected highlights from my stay, most, but not entirely film-related, will follow shortly.