The idea of calling this show ‘Chasing the Light’ came from my experience painting from life, in the open-air studio (plein air), a practice made famous by the French Impressionists.
My first memory of plein air painting was when I was 19, riding my bike in North Wales, where I was at University. I stopped to try and paint a lane with evening sun and shadows on it. A farmer came to have a look and asked me, ‘why are you painting that?’, I said I wasn’t sure, I just liked painting the light and the shadows. He looked at me oddly and then left.
Despite the challenges of plein air painting, fickle weather, rising tides and curious passers-by, I prefer to paint in front of my subject. I complete landscape work on location, with only minor adjustments back in the studio. All the answers are there in front of you, you see people and stuff you just can’t invent. It’s always about the effects of light. I have to work fast to capture the image before the conditions change and for that reason, most of my paintings are small. Some of the larger ones in the show required repeat visits to the same location, when the conditions were similar. The large ‘Accommodation Paddock’ painting was a particularly difficult one to complete. My attempt to get what I wanted from the small, on-site sketches, wasn’t working in the studio. I ended up carting the canvas up to the location in the central highlands several times before I felt I had what I wanted.
The subjects of the paintings in this show are random things that I found attractive at the time. Most were painted on location in Tasmania but I have included some done while on holiday visiting Tasmanian friends now living in Collioure, France. Some may think a few of the subjects were an odd thing to paint, but for me they were beautiful, transformed by the particular light and atmosphere at that time. It’s the way I see things that I want to convey to the viewer. It’s a language. I enjoy it when someone connects with the image as I saw it.
Location
Lady Franklin Gallery, 268 Lenah Valley Road
Exhibition now closed. Thank you so much to everyone who attended!

Another fleeting moment, Kelly’s steps

‘Accommodation Paddock’ snow, Central Highlands

‘Accomodation Paddock’, Tasmanian Highlands

Beach fun, Carlton

Beach fun, Dodges Ferry

Bicheno rockpool

Bicheno rocks

Blue boat, Franklin Morning

Blue gum 1

Blue gum 2

Boats on the Huon, Franklin

Craypot, Picnic Island

Cromwell Street, Battery Point

Ducks and blossom, Coal River

East coast barn

Geraniums in winter sun

Hazards at dawn from Picnic Island

‘I’m doing fine watching shadows on the wall’

kunanyi/Mt Wellington, from Montagu Bay, dawn

Lane to St Andrews Park, Hobart

Looking south from Royden Island

Oat Stooks near Pittwater

Oatstack, Cambridge

Old and new, Cambridge, Autumn 2021

Pencil pine lagoon, winter evening

Rock Hopper, Dodges Ferry

Roydon Island, dawn

Shearing shed, evening light

Snow at the Ripple, Central Highlands

Snow melt, Accomodation Paddock, Central Highlands

Steppes Homestead, Late morning, Winter

Steve

Strezlecki from Trousers Point, Flinders Island

Strezlecki from Sawyers Bay

The Post office, Steppes Homestead

The Wallflowers, Lady Franklin Gallery

Wave and rocks, Carlton Beach

Collioure anchovy barque-Port de Collioure

Collioure barques – Plage Boramar

Collioure castle wall and harbour – Plage d’Avall

Collioure evening light – Le Boutiguer

Collioure from vineyard hill – vue du Carrer St Elme

Collioure harbour – promenade du Chateau

Collioure harbour

Collioure scene – Couvent des Dominicians

Collioure Street 1 – Rue Marceau

Collioure street 2 – Rue Marceau

Collioure street 3 – Rue de la Convention, Faubourg

Collioure street 4 – Rue Nungesser et Coli, Faubourg

Bedroom daises

Blue boat, afternoon, Franklin

Blunnies on the beach

Franklin dock

Gulls in surf

Millers cottage, Richmond

Passage Island Rocks, Bass Strait

Snow in Accommodation Paddock, Central Highlands

Stairway to Heaven, Dodges Ferry
