Tomerong Hall Centenary – Panel 5 – Cricket

At 5pm today I finally completed the last panel, feeling like I had cabin fever! A two week painting blitz to end a 5 month project – my body needs a rest on a beach…soon to be my self reward. I really love this one. The cricket team photo was small and fuzzy in parts, but the distortions added a ghostly slant to the Tomerong men of the past. The medals were laborious but so satisfying! Darren’s Bradman bat and Mark’s cricket ball were also labour intensive but kind of fun, especially adding the white stitches as the last touch. An interesting competition idea is to guess which cricketer is Jim McGuire (from my painting of him as the woodchopper). He is next to Cyril McGuire the medal awardee. So many McGuires! And a few Watts.

Cricket – Panel 5. Exterior house paint on marine ply. 238 x 58 cm

Tomerong Hall Centenary – Panel 4 – Village/Bypass

Today I finished the second coat of exterior house paint on the second last panel in commemoration of the Tomerong Hall Centenary. The work has collaborative elements such as hand prints by Koori students from Tomerong Public School. Regina and Richard Heilmann transported me and the panel to the school on the 2nd of September. The children allowed me to use a mini roller on their hand of choice, which resulted in a very detailed print. Some were red to match red elements, notably the SHUT campaign logo and some were the honey colour I had mixed myself, to match Parnell’s honey jar. The most delightful part of the panel was painting replicas of local artist Leoni McCann’s whimsical depictions of historic buildings of Tomerong, including the hall. The Post Office and Union Church combined with the Bypass options diagram evoke the peaceful quaint atmosphere of the village.

Village/Bypass – Panel 4. Exterior house paint on marine ply. 238 x 58 cm

Tomerong Hall Centenary – Panel 3 – Fires

Yesterday I completed the second coat of exterior house paint on panel 3 of the 5 panel commission for Tomerong Hall’s new outdoor stage. I am still behind schedule. This panel was more detailed so it took longer to finish. I was going to add children’s hand prints from Tomerong Hall, but the logistics of transporting such large panels to the school and back are prohibitive. I am really happy with the bushfire as is anyway.

Fires – Panel 3. Exterior house paint on marine ply. 238 x 58 cm

Tomerong Hall Centenary – Panel 2 – Social

Today I completed the second coat of exterior house paint on panel 2 of a 5 panel commission for Tomerong Hall’s new outdoor stage to be launched at the centenary celebration in October. I have a schedule of completing one per month to make the deadline and this one was 10 days overdue – I do have a buffer as install is the 10th October. I find the yellow cake on the white flour packets ironic and the brown teacups and teapot dancing above the white couple. They are in the formation of Olive Cotton’s famous teacup photo, which was acclaimed for its elongated shadows appearing like tutu clad ballerinas.

Social – Panel 2. Exterior house paint on marine ply. 238 x 58 cm

Tomerong Hall Centenary – Panel 1 – Woodchopping

Last night I completed the second coat of exterior house paint on panel 1 of a 5 panel commission for Tomerong Hall’s new outdoor stage to be launched at the centenary celebration in October. I have a schedule of completing one per month to make the deadline and this one was 9 days overdue – this is because early May I was still completing the final touches on my collaborative mural ‘Cosmic Prawn’ for the Tea Club. Thanks to Darren for all his panel moving, it has been a production line of priming both sides of each panel x 2 and then 2 coats of grey Weathershield on back and sides, also finally completed today! I have started the teapot on Panel 2 today, what a marathon! My vanessa laomedia butterfly features on this panel as my signature as it is my business logo and spirit.

Woodchopping – Panel 1. Exterior house paint on marine ply. 238 x 58 cm

Hollow in the Sky (Gallóglaigh Autumn 2024 Rainbow Lorikeet) 2026

I completed painting the pipeclay background today, the front and back of this rainbow lorikeet took 26.5 hours working in oils. Their body was found deceased and then decomposed in the autumn of 2024 as part of a shroud set at Gallóglaigh, Tomboye. The central shroud figure is intriguing due to the line formed around the body by dirt blown in and the beak and eye adhering to the canvas. I have drawn the silhouette of a tree hollow around them as though their spirit is returning to a tree hollow in the afterlife.

Cosmic Prawn – Spirit of the Tea Club Nowra 2026

Tori Higgins, Rosemary Cochrane and I painted a mural panel for the Tea Club in Nowra as a part of the Regnite Nowra CBD Art Walk funded by NSW Government’s Uptown Accelerator Program. We painted the initial coat together in the Vincentia Connections Community Hub during the second week of the April school holidays and had lots of visits from interested community members. We even had enquiries about future mural commissions! I completed the final coats in my studio yesterday. The Cosmic Prawn character featured as the spirit of the Tea Club is a Surrealistic portrait of a local percussionist Stan, known by locals as Cosmic. Cosmic is a colourful character who has been painted by other local artists (including Bob Dixon and Helen Nugent). Consultation with original creator of the Tea Club Ross Longfield revealed Cosmic as an enthusiastic regular performer at the Tea Club when it began. Cosmic has become a fatherly figure for me as a drumming mentor since the passing of my father who taught me to play drums. Cosmic wanted to be painted in a non-serious surrealistic way to reflect his personality. Rosemary painted tea plants that feature on the menu at the Tea Club, while Tori has painted the sky, mountain and ghost moths fluttering upwards.

Cosmic Prawn – Spirit of the Tea Club 2026 Exterior House Paint on Marine Ply 81 x 122 cm The Tea Club Nowra

Female Wet Specimen 2007 UNSW 2026

On Tuesday 21st I completed a digital collage of aquarelle drawings I had created when an artist invited other artists to the bowels of the UNSW where surgeons trained on human bodies donated to science. There was a strange humour in the department, no doubt to deal with the obvious horror of dealing with human body parts. It was expressed by a head that had been ‘carried’ around the department for a while referred to as the ‘basket case’ as two holes had been cut in either side of the skull to enable it to be carried like a basket. They began the drawing session by bringing out female body parts (one assumes from the same person) incrementally to draw starting with arms, then legs, then torso and head. I think the torso was the most confronting. My collage reflects the dismemberment and the scientific culture our bodies are subjected to. The work will be exhibited on from the 2nd – 12th July at Tiliqua Tiliqua 257 Enmore Rd, Enmore in a show called Paper, Rock, Scissors.

Bundanon Artist and Maker’s Market

Today I participated in BAMM, which was a wonderful experience. I have Virginia Settre to thank for inviting me to participate. A wonderful array of visitors enabled me to share my unusual shroud process, which was well received. Dear old friends (Middlemost) and fellow local artists such as Anna Glynn, Natalie McDonagh and Barbara Dawson also visited. I was also surprised to meet one of my patrons, thank you so much. Thank you also to those who took the time to listen to me talk about my work and the links I make between material and meaning. As a response to the current ecological crisis animals (including the human animal) face, my work is evidence of those lives lost that I encounter as a witness. Works that were well received included Autumn Mullet 2016 – the centre piece for my marine relics hextych. I talked about the taxidermy practice of my father Tibor Barbay, whose posthumous taxidermy retrospective occurred in the very same space I was in – the Boyd Education Centre.

Rainbow Lorikeet (Autumn 2015 Bundanon) 2026

I finally completed a lorikeet shroud on paper I had created at Bundanon during my residency. It took 27 hours, the chalk pastel being particularly time consuming. The work is on show at Project Contemporary Art space for IWD from the 4th – 22nd March. Currently on show in the Shoalhaven Art Society’s Annual exhibition Berry School of Art.