I had moved to Melbourne to study biomedical science at Monash University, and during a break from studies, I went back home to Ballarat. For some reason, I felt like painting my grandmother’s house. So I grabbed my French easel from the shed, picked up a canvas, paints and brushes from my favourite art store in Ballarat, Radmac, and headed out to paint.
Looking back, it reminds me of what Arthur Streeton wrote to Tom Roberts after painting Purple Noon’s Transparent Might in 1896. He described being in a state of “artistic intoxication,” inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem Stanzas Written in Dejection, near Naples.
When I painted this, I hadn’t really painted for two or three years. Somehow, it felt like just five minutes before the afternoon was over and the painting was finished. It was like those moments when you drive somewhere and don’t remember how you got there, or when you get so absorbed in something you forget to eat or drink. That painting still stands as my favourite I’ve ever done.
Title: Cold Day, Warm Memories (2007)
Size: 80cm (height) x 60cm (width)
Medium: oil on canvas on board
Frame: Framed by Accent Framing and Fine Art, Ballarat
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