Getaway

A painting of a public pool with red benches to one side. A woman in a red bikini falls towards the pool from the sky.
Olympia, oil and graphite on polyester, 77 x 92 cm
A painting of a public pool with a diving platform. A woman in a bikini flies overhead grasping a beach ball.
Voyager, oil and graphite on polyester, 56.5 x 61.5 cm
A painting of a woman standing on a diving board over a hotel pool. Three beach balls hover overhead. Another figure on a different diving board can be seen in the distance.
Phoenix, oil and graphite on polyester, 61.5 x 56.5 cm SOLD
A painting of a public pool. Overhead hover a woman in a bikini and several beach balls.
Spring-Heeled Jackie, oil and graphite on polyester, 56.5 x 61.5 cm SOLD
A painting of eight beach balls of different sizes on a blue background. A woman in a red bikini sits on one of the balls.
Pioneer, oil and graphite on polyester, 61.5 x 56.5 cm SOLD
A painting of a woman standing on a diving board while a group looks on from the other side of the pool. Three beach balls hover beneath her, and a fin is visible in the water.
Phoenix II, oil and graphite on polyester, 51 x 46 cm SOLD
A painting of four beach balls hovering over a public pool. Two men in towels stand next to the pool, near a woman seated on a bench.
Orbit, oil and graphite on polyester, 46 x 51cm SOLD
A painting of beach balls with a walled, half filled pool. Three beach balls are in the air, a fourth is in the water.
Olympic, oil and graphite on polyester, 46 x 51cm
A painting of a nearly empty pool surrounded by a wall. A beach ball is in the water. A woman falls from the sky towards the pool.
Lusitanic, oil and graphite on polyester, 51 x 46 cm
A painting of a woman in a red bikini surrounded by four beach balls of various sizes. She looks as though she is fending them off. The background is blue.
Lost, oil and graphite on polyester, 51 x 46 cm SOLD
A painting of a man and a woman in red swimwear on a blue background with beach balls. The man is carrying the woman and running from the beach balls.
Getaway! oil and graphite on polyester, 51 x 46 cm SOLD
A painting of an upside-down walled pool with beach balls falling from it. A woman in a red bikini is perched on the edge of pool.
Fool-Killer, oil and graphite on polyester, 61.5 x 56.5 cm

Getaway is a continuation of my interest in how the Australian landscape is depicted through souvenir imagery such as postcards and tourist brochures. Toying with the conventions of these materials – setting a figure just a bit higher in the sky, emptying the swimming pool, casting beach balls as harbingers of the uncanny – the atmosphere shifts from wholesome fun to mild discomfort. It felt a bit odd painting such images in a time where travel has been so radically restricted.

During the last year of fire and plague I found myself listening to podcasts less in the car and more in the studio. Narrations of weird and fake histories, paranormal tales and creepy folktales started to find their way into the work, a testament to the shifting reality we find ourselves in.