The Joy of Flight

2016

Acrylic on canvas

95 cm x 145 cm

Signed lower right

At this time of year the swallows return to their nests in our big open barn outside my studio door, they fly in and out all day swirling around in the most graceful way, little flashes of blue and orange. I often wonder about these little beauties and how they make the incredible journey from Far North Queensland, PNG and Indonesia all the way to the southern half of Australia. They really earn their name “Welcome Swallow” because their arrival heralds the change of season from winter to spring.

A very large hare has taken up residence around my studio and in the nearby pine forest that our drive way cuts through to the front gate, the forest side of the drive is about 2 meters higher than the paddock side of our drive. One sunny morning in early spring when the air was full of welcome swallows wheeling about, I was slowly driving up our drive way with my 9 year old daughter in the car when the hare leapt from the forest embankment and sailed through the air with the swallows, it was an astounding moment, I knew there and then I had to paint it.

I recast the vision at an airport just for my own and hopefully the viewers amusement, although I hate flying I actually love airports they are a visual feasts, and I love all the signage, ground marking, trucks, tugs, planes and best of all people in fluoro vests. It’s a graphic dream come true and one that I have revisited over the past decade or so. GT

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