James
Brown
“The
Common”, 2006
Oil
on canvas, 60 x 80 cm
I made this painting over the course of two weekend painting trips with my painting companion and best friend, Hilary, in a nature reserve called The Townsville Common Conservation Park located in the eastern part of Australia's north. The park is known for its diversity of birds, but, of course, there are many other critters like snakes (aka “danger noodles”) and wallabies. I love the area. The terrain is reasonably flat and spotted with what I'm told is monsoon thorn thicket scrub. Heading towards the sea, there is a low mountain range known as ‘Many Peaks' with somewhat bleached looking tidal salt flats at its base.
The site of this painting was a semi-shaded area nestled among pandanus and
long grass with a curlew keeping watch on what we were doing. I remember clearly that we each laid a ring of insect repellent
around where we worked to stop the ants from making a meal of our legs. What I
was hoping to capture in the painting was the broken light, the heat, the marks of
bush fire charring and the presence of thorny vegetation.
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