I have done many commissions in my artistic career but the latest one has been rather unusual as it entailed converting a small 12″ by 10″ picture into a much larger painting with very different dimensions, 60″ by 16″. The request was to paint something similar to the one shown here which is a fusion of my own technique with indigenous Australian Aboriginal subject matter.
I immediately went to my Australian sketchbook collection of images, paintings and sketches that I made after our trip to Australia as I thought exactly the same composition would not work with a large extended version. The sketchbook cover is shown below:
Aboriginals believe all life – human, animal, bird, fish, insects – is related to their “Dreamtime” ancestors and continues in the “Dreaming” today. Their ancient rock art used earth colours of red, yellow, black and white and contained various signs, patterns and symbols representing many aspects of life.
I experimented with numerous layouts and decided that as the land is so important in the aboriginal culture and certain areas are sacred, the proportion of land to sea should be slightly greater and that additional creatures might be appropriate too. I could have added many animals and reptiles but decided eventually to put in a snake/serpent, another crocodile and re-position the hand and shell. I then produced a full sized mock up which was changed again before I committed paint to the canvas.
The work has now been finished and delivered so I very much hope the commissioner is happy with the result.
In my last blog, I mentioned my renewed membership of Centrepieces, a local mental health charity which I support . They are celebrating 20 years since they were founded this year and I have donated some of my paintings to them for a sale and auction this month in the hope that I can raise some money for a well-deserved cause.