Outback Painting Trip in May 2009

Well protected by fly net

Kit: board, good paper, pen and brushes and twigs, water, watercolour paints

Wow...what a lot I learned from fellow artists on this trip.

Besides using my basic watercolours, I used charcoal from the fire as well as twigs to scratch into the painted surface. 

Grass scratched into paint using twigs, giving an accidental effect you could never get with a brush.

I did 6-8 paintings each day over 10 days so ended up with lots of little works which I bound into 2 booklets using cardboard and string. I really felt like I wanted to use the materials of the environment.

The scenery on day 1 was too overwhelming to paint...I tore up my first attempts...so then I concentrated on a detailed observation and painting of an arrangement of interesting stones, leaves and sticks. 

From that I had a better idea of the colours around me and alternated between detailed paintings and bigger views. 

It was very helpful to use my little fridge magnet frame, not only as a viewfinder but also to draw a frame using the inside rectangle to frame my picture. This also left me a margin which I used to try out colours before using them in the picture.

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Another good idea was using the actual gum leaf as a palette to match the exact colour. I discovered it was a wash of green, blue, ochre...applied in layers.

Detail showing final exhibition, laid out on a tarp in true outback style! Cheese, wine and nibblies were mandatory!

It was very interesting and inspiring to see the work of the other fellow artists not just at the final exhibition, but also during the days when I took time out to photograph them at work. Nobody else did this, which surprised me! 
The other surprise was to see how secretive some artists were, as I had no idea of their work till the last day.
The whole point of a trip like this is surely to learn from each other as the work progresses! Well that’s what I did anyway.

Campsite painted on the last day

I was pleased when looking at my work chronologically to see the progress to THE BIG VIEWS...even on a small sheet of paper, the distance was there. This was impossible to achieve on the first day.

                             

  

This was quite a careful and detailed work, trying to get the distances correct.

Loved the white trunks, so painted those against a dark background. Left out the foliage.

                             
The other interesting thing I noticed about my work was that I loved/was attracted to water. Water was very scarce out there in Ellery Gorge and patches of water/soaks/areas of bulrushes seemed to figure in most of my paintings.

An acrylic on canvas I painted in 2013 from the photo taken on this trip

This trip was so great. I was painting daily, with new views to inspire me every day, and the opportunity to make new friends as well as learn from fellow artists.
May I finish with the words from that wonderful poem, which I recited each night as I looked through the tent flap: "And at night the wondrous glory of the everlasting stars..."