JULY

I miss the cinnamon crispbread for breakfast, the icebergs cruising by just outside the window, the howling husky dogs, the noisy flutter of helicopters overhead moving to and from the settlements and even Carolinas unique Greenlandic seal soup. The very cute Upernavik retreat was really a great spot to be for a month. I suggest some exploration about that part of the globe. Carolina and I managed to adapt to that midnight sun lifestyle rapidly but now we are back to nights, crowds, mobile telephones and assorted big city chaos.

Nine hours spent at Dubai airport waiting for a connecting flight was less than fabulous after which we fell into Hong Kong through a mountain of hot misty tropical cloud. Hong Kong is a grand city that is always pumping and it certainly was for the six days we stayed there. Hong Kong Island is a very different island to Upernavik but similar with its array of strange smells and odd food, each morning the pungent stink of gingseng floated from a nearby import shop to where we stayed. I drank a lot of iced coffee called “Mr Brown” and attempted to acclimatize fast from an Arctic climate to a tropical one.

In Chinese the expression for landscape is shan shui which roughly translates as ‘mountains water.’ Hong Kong has both these things so qualifies as a fabulous landscape as long as brown vile clouds do not conceal the beauty of its mountains and water. Next up was Queensland.

Brisbane was a rapid and jam packed visit involving the showing of my 70 KNOT paintings at Milani gallery, a lovely dinner or two, friends to locate, a dog called Chilli to look after and attempts were made to find time to take a relaxed stroll around this culturally active city that expands rapidly as I write this blog.

Now Melbourne my hometown surrounds us and I have family and friends to see, art exhibitions to prepare for, some interviews and many things to sort out as usual. I cannot complain but busy-ness can be rather draining after the very mellow polar social structures I have recently situated myself in.
The Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery exhibits a body of my work under the title -  An UNSTILL-LIFE. This is a short stroll through fifteen large works and nine small works of mine with the hope of displaying a few years of my wanderings via these works that were all spawned on the road.
At William Mora gallery I hang another body of work from my travels in Antarctica during 2009. This BLIZZ-LINE show is a selection of works produced at Mawson station in the Wombat Studio/science building. Soon after this show opens and the farewell drinks have been drunk then Carolina and I jump on a plane to find some heat and some Broome-time.