I have always followed Billy Connolly’s career and was shocked when it was announced that he had Parkinson’s disease which my dad also suffered from. I saw Billy live, not long before he was diagnosed with the illness, thanks to Trudi our daughter, who bought us tickets for one of his shows for my birthday. I also owe him (and Christine) credit for our Ruby Wedding trip to Australia. Thanks to his “World Tour of Australia” in 1995, later broadcast by the BBC and now available on DVD, we decided to spend nearly a month there in 2008 exploring the east coast. The soundtrack also uses the Aboriginal concept of “Dreamtime” which is their understanding of the world, of its creation and its great stories. The song of the same title by Ralph McTell and sung by Billy Connolly is used throughout the series of programmes.
One of the highlights for me in Australia was an outing to Bill Ricketts’ Sanctuary at Mount Dandenong near Melbourne, which Billy Connolly visited on his tour. We would never have known that this place existed had it not been for his enthusiasm about the Sanctuary. It was one of the most breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful spots I have ever been to in my life and Billy, who can be very sensitive, serious and reverential at times, clearly thought so too. William Ricketts was an early environmentalist and artist who befriended the indigenous Aboriginal people and in his Sanctuary he created 92 ceramic sculptures of these people and animals which merge with the natural woodland surroundings of the mountainside.
“……Mountains crumble forests vanish
Seeds awakened by the fire
Water air and earth have borne them
And I can feel my old ones near
Yet I could not be further from you
Now with both feet on the ground
But in the dreamtime
Souls take flight
And I am closer to you now….”
(Ralph McTell)
Billy Connolly is a multi-talented performer who is not only a comedian but also an actor, musician (singer and instrumentalist) and an artist himself who is also interested in other artists and includes both Brett Whiteley, Aboriginal art (Jimmy Pike) and miscellaneous other visual art references in the very entertaining Australian documentary which is still available on DVD. He has also taken part in a film about Stanley Spencer which was broadcast earlier this year on television.
Just before we went to Australia in 2008, the Australian Government had made a formal apology to the indigenous Aboriginal population for the past wrongs caused by successive governments on them, particularly to “The Stolen Generations” of thousands of children forcibly removed from their families, something which went on into the late 1960s. When I came back, I collected information, sketches and photos we took during the trip and made up a special Australian Sketchbook about the holiday, people and places we saw. Here are two more extracts from my Australian sketchbook:-
The Dreaming
The Elder
In contrast to this, my fascination with the life and music of Kate Bush continues, and I have recently completed another portrait of her very much as she was at the beginning of her career. As I have once again been to see the BP Portrait Awards and the National Portrait Gallery my enthusiasm to try and paint better portraits has been stimulated by the absolute mastery of skills demonstrated in this exhibition.
Kate Bush