I’m a big Nirvana fan since discovering them aged 18. So sooner or later I was going to do a picture of Kurt who is a popular subject in drawings and paintings. I did this the last week of December, 2002. This was the first picture I got framed. It’s ok, the head is a bit too small and I wasn’t satisfied with it. So I did another painting of him.
The laneway from our farm leads into the field depicted here, called the ‘Long Garden’. The shed is of a neighbouring farmer’s. I painted this in one sitting, positioned in the middle of the field surrounded by wheat. Painted on 5th August, 2002.
Taking up the advice of the leader of the local painter’s group, I set about copying this famous picture in the first week of September, 2001. It was enjoyable to paint, especially the stars.
This painting was started in the summer of 1999 and painted on and off into summer 2001. I was interested in how the various buildings intersect with each other. I set up inside one of the farm sheds looking out on to the farmyard. A group of local artists came to the farm to paint shortly after I finished this. I showed the leader a few of my works up to that date, and he found my style quite lacklustre, citing this picture in particular. He advised to look at the Impressionists and more colourful art. This became the inspiration for the next painting, a copy of Van Gogh’s famous Starry Night.
An early work. My brother learned to play the cello when he was younger. I liked the shade of brown on the surface of the instrument. Painted in November 2000.
An early attempt at a portrait. It was difficult to make, I had no experience of painting others at the time. Dan sat for hours. He was 11 at the time. Painted in late October, 2000.
This was my father’s tractor. He was dead over a year when I painted this in August, 1999. We had an old picnic table that we stored in the same shed as the tractor and I used it to paint this. I loved painting the rust on the hub of the wheel and the general grime and dust on the windows. Gnarly, decaying old objects are appealing to me. I had no work for the tractor to do so I gave it to a cousin of mine in 2008.
