Starts With A Hat
“What’s with the hat?”, you may ask. And why do all these paintings feature such a prominent chapeau. Well, the answer is this. I love Summer!! Summer in Australia is all about hot sunny days, white sandy beaches and beautiful blue water. The beach is iconically linked to what it means to be an Australian. From the bronzed surf lifesavers standing proudly in their bright yellow and red caps, to the surfers wandering aimlessly along the beach , heads down, boards under their arms, coffee in hand. You can almost hear the mindless chitchat about the surf-break, the rips and the waves. I am unequivocally drawn to the whole beach culture. I often find myself at Byron Bay sitting perched on the headland taking endless photographs of the beautiful beaches, the sun soaked beach goers and the surfers. They’re without question some of my favorite images.
Close to the Beach
Pretty ironic really, for a kid who grew up in the Outback to be so enamored with the beach, but in a way it makes sense. My childhood home was an 8-10 hour drive inland from the beach, however, as a family we took the chance to always escape to the coast for our Summer holidays. When I think back about those times, I’m filled with warm memories of long lazy afternoons on the beach, often tucked up under a sun hat beside mum, both of us reading quietly together. Occasionally we’d chat about someone or something we spotted on the beach. Usually a family ...... Mum would say to me “ Do you think the little baby belongs to that nice young man in the red hat who’s playing cricket with the other kids?”. We’d both look and chatter away , somehow inventing an entire social network and family dynamic for these people who were unknowingly now the lead characters in our afternoon hypothetical play. It sounds rather foolish, but it was lazy and relaxing and maybe on some deeper level it helped to stimulate my creative side . All that story telling and laughter.
Nowadays I still love to spend long days at the beach, and any Aussie will tell you, a summer hat is as essential as a beach umbrella and bucketloads of Sunscreen.
We’re also travelers, or at least we were before Covid came to join us. Our favorite travel spots are Capri and the Amalfi coast, Saint Tropez and the French Riviera, and Capetown in South Africa. For anyone interested in some travel tips, I have a link below to my travel and photography blog - “Road to Nowhere”.
Summer in Europe awakens the senses and soothes the soul. Boating in Capri to a little out of the way quintessential Italian beachside restaurant for a long lazy lunch with fresh caught seafood and stunning local wines. It’s a really special place and one we have shared with so many amazing friends over the years. And what better way to reconnect with that sensation, when our wings are clipped and we can’t travel, than to paint . Hats, water, light and sunshine. It warms my soul and brings so many lovely memories to the forefront of my mind.
So you see...... my paintings at the moment...... start with a hat!!!