Worrowing Winter Shroud Set

In preparation for the Other Art Fair in Sydney I set up a new Winter Shroud set at Worrowing last weekend. Magically as soon as I thought I needed to create more marine shrouds a baby Port Jackson shark, green turtle and stingray magically appeared on the beach where I jog many mornings. Then on the way to the shroud site directed by Tom I saw something on the track and discovered a recently deceased kookaburra!
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Bundanon Rainbow Lorikeet

On Sunday I completed the Rainbow Lorikeet I had created at Worrowing during my residency. The Lorikeet was found deceased by Alicia Talbot during my residency at Bundanon in 2015. Its shroud on paper is still waiting for a watercolour painting. At Worrowing I had a strong desire to paint on a sturdy linen stretcher with rich oil colours. I remembered a friend (my former primary school teacher) Bruce Malbon had requested a colourful bird, so I felt inspired. I began the ‘paint’-staking but enjoyable process of completing two coats of gesso in the negative space between the nest motif consisting of the raw linen glistening with rabbit-skin glue. I also left raw linen sections inside the Lorikeet too, which made the oil painting a little more challenging. I am very happy with the result. 68(w) x 64(h) cm.
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Worrowing Donation

Alone(SpringPigeon)2011inHillEndWinter2016
Alone (Spring Pigeon) 2011 in Hill End Winter 2016 Crested pigeon, delek, bitumen, oil and rabbit skin glue on canvas

During my PhD I created many ‘shrouds’ using an installation set up on a farm in the Monaro where Tony and his partner the sculptor Steven Holland live. The crested pigeon was found deceased on a road in Canberra and placed on a sprung bed-base to decompose. The eucalypt under which the canvas lay leached its rich brown bark juice on the right hand side while the mesh protecting the body from predators left a rusty imprint. Originally exhibited without further work undertaken as Alone (Spring Pigeon) 2011 in my graduate show, I was suddenly compelled to take the work to Hill End with me in 2016. It was there I added my most common motif, the nest using delek the sacred white ochre from Madjarlngarlkum in Western Arnhem Land. The nest is a cosy home offered to the bird and myself when away from home. I then painted in the post-decomposed body of the pigeon using bitumen and a touch of oils that speak to the bark stain. I lined the bird beaks up like a reflection, a conversation between two forms of representation; one created by the disintegrating subject another the painted signifier. I then located the work in Hill End by painting in an iconic structure found in the town using a very minimal technique in which the main body of the figure consists of the raw canvas ground sized with rabbit skin glue which sparkles under lights and seals the bodily fluids and debris to the surface.

Worrowing Day 2

Waking up seeing the colours of dawn from bed and painting. I had soaked a batch of rabbit skin glue and alum to size a bunch of new linen and canvas stretchers, one being the ringtail and magpie shroud created at hill End. I worked on Bherwerre 6 more too and thought of a work to paint for the Flourish theme Ravenswood Art Prize, although I only have two days left to create it, which may be impossible. Darren and I walked down to the dams and swamp on the property and found some clay colours suitable for the ochre expedition on Sunday. I was hoping to also find wattle glue but there were mainly casuarinas, eucalypts and paperbarks.
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