Of A Time and Place

Of A Time and Place is, in a sense, a collection of 'postcards' - albeit, large ones. Like most good postcards, they are a retroactive view of the present. I am interested in places that reek of the past, places that are uncelebrated, perhaps, but invested with a sense of transience. 

In our image-choked world, where a touch of the finger suffices to confer immortality to an experience, I think it is important to slow down and to really see. And when one draws one can claim to really see. I believe that this meticulously 'fabricated realism' can restructure our sense of the beautiful and enable us to see the extraordinary behind the ordinary.

Of a Time and Place pays homage to cities both here and abroad. I was transplanted to Melbourne in the late sixties to study. It is a place I now call home. It is small wonder that there is a preponderance of images of Melbourne and Sydney (images 1 to 9). Blessed with abundant sunshine, activities tend to take place outdoors. Take image 8 for instance; here, a kerbside has been commandeered and turned into a makeshift eatery. The family interaction is interesting.

Japan also features strongly in my drawings. My wife and I have travelled here with some regularity; our son being gainfully employed in Japan may have something to do with it. Temples and shrines abound here - all are beautifully preserved (Images 10, 14 and 17). Order and respect are the hallmarks of this society - exemplified by image 13, where passengers wait patiently in line at a bus stop at Kyoto Station. Of course, there is the jostling between the two children whose intransigence goes unnoticed by the mother, perhaps intentionally. There is also a more intimate image - a romantic liaison, perhaps (Image 16). It is summer, to judge by the dress code, and the dining table is immaculately scrubbed; all the accoutrements associated with fine dinning are perfectly in place - except, perhaps, for a pair or two of chopsticks that had fallen onto the roof tiles.