"Mainly Macleay"

SIMON MARK

2TH DEC. 22 to 2ND JAN..23

Last year I enumerated the Census allowing me to travel, during lockdowns, through many of the more remote areas of the Upper Macleay Valley. I picnicked in some remote spots which offered some spectacular scenery. I visited every resided corner five-fold, drawing most lunchtimes. I could also quickly photograph unique landscapes as I worked. After this job came to an end, I began painting many of the views I saw in this isolated and distinctive part of Australia. The Macleay is idiosyncratic to our nation, no other place offers such splendid scenery of rolling and high-hilled, jagged topography, carved by a wild, rocky river and its tributaries. I love painting this countryside in Winter. The chilly evenings tend to turn the wild whiskey grasses a deep orange along with pinks, juxtaposed against the blues and mauves of the clouds. I also feel challenged by many other subjects in painting oils, such as figurative and floral work. I have lived in a rural area of the Upper Macleay for the last twenty years. I have an Under-Grad and Post-Graduate Diploma from the College of Fine Arts, Sydney. I hope you enjoy my work.