05:0./;I have quite a few of my paintings
hanging in my home but there are
three in particular that I do not care to
part with.
The first is an original painting I
completed after copying many other
artists’ work while studying folk art. It
is an image of a little girl in a field of
yellow flowers, looking up at the sun’s
rays shining through storm clouds. It is
a 25 x 35 cm acrylic on canvas board.
I titled it ‘The Calling’.
The second is a portrait of Jesus
titled ‘Isaiah 53’. It is 1.0 x 1.5 metres,
painted mostly with the corner of a
mop sponge – not to free me up, but
because I had only used little folk art
brushes at the time, and I couldn’t
get my finish smooth on such a large
piece. I really went all out with this
one. I didn’t want a polite image like
I’d seen in many old church paintings.
It is more in keeping with the movie
‘The Passion of the Christ’. I glued
on real dove feathers and cut gashes
into the canvas with a knife. It is quite
a confronting image and it received
some attention when I entered the
finished work into the Gympie Gold
Rush Art Competition.
Thirdly, there is my unintentional
impressionistic ‘Christ on the Cross’.
After deciding to take the plunge
into opening my own studio, I was
frantically painting some new works
to fill the walls. I was just sponging on
a blue background in preparation for
a study of Bird of Paradise flowers.
After having trouble with the canvas
bouncing on the easel, I had put it
onto the floor. Next problem, I was
running out of paint and was trying
unsuccessfully to cover the canvas
by adding a bit of water to dilute theacrylic. In frustration, I stood up from
the floor to see if I could squeeze a bit
more paint out of the empty tube ...
and when I looked down, I could see
a vague image. I thought, ‘it is just
my imagination, no-one else would
be able to see it’ ... so I put it back on
the easel and called my son, who was
about four years old at the time, and
asked him: “What is that a picture of?”
Without hesitation my son replied,
“Jesus on the cross, and there are
people swimming down the bottom.”
I could not see the people swimming
down the bottom, but I did accentuate
what I could see to be doves flying
up at the top. I was not game to touch
it again for a couple of days but
eventually, after looking through some
old Renaissance church paintings,
I added a gold circle around the
centre of interest. I stored it away for