“Ross, Joni and the kids”
Oil on ACP
1000mm x 750mm
When Ross, a long time friend of ours, rang and asked me to paint a family portrait of the love of his life Joni, and their three children, Maggi, Jack and Alex , to give to Joni as a birthday present, I was thrilled.
Ross and I go back to when I first landed in Cairns in 1982, I lived with him , his brother and dad for a period when I was at a loose end, I have always been thankful for their generosity, support and kindness.
We were young men running around and having a lot of fun in a tropical paradise, when Cairns was still pretty rough around the edges. Ross’s dad was in charge of the Cairns Police station so we had to rein it in a bit!!
His dad Gordon was a great bloke and I spent many hours fishing and hunting with him around Cairns and up on Cape York, wild times.
So all these years later to paint Ross and his lovely family was an honour and pleasure. I didn’t get it done for Joni’s birthday but the family gave it as a Christmas present and it was a hit.
Ross and Joni’s families have long histories in North Queensland so painting the beers in the painting was a natural must.
Painting a large family portrait and getting the likeness and character of the subjects is a real challenge but when you think you’ve nailed it, and they think you have, it’s a great relief and a big buzz.
Joni and Ross were great sports and took a photo with the painting in the clothes they were wearing and Ross with beer in hand, thanks guys it was a pleasure!!
“Baz and 3 bikes”
Oil on ACP
650mm x 750mm
COMMISSION
Growing up in a country town in the 70’s and attending a small primary school enabled me to share tiny classrooms with some amazing kids who have become lifelong friends. We all had big characters and life took us in many directions, and looking back it you could never predict where we would end up!
There were some wild boys in our class and driving fast cars and riding motorcycles became a thing for a lot of them…
Faye is one of those friends, one of the girls in our class and a lovely and fun person, and like the boys, riding motorcycles became one of her things!!
When she contacted me recently and asked could I do a portrait of her husband Baz for his birthday I was wrapped, I love portraits and like painting machines. She had a pic of Baz with their Ducati 959. Faye also had pics of their normal rides, hers an 850 BMW and Baz’s a 1250 BMW, the Duke is their ‘buzz bike’ and she asked could I incorporate them, was a challenge but we got there!
The painting arrived on the morning of his birthday and Faye did a reveal before a birthday dinner… Baz was blown out, which is so cool.
I love painting for people, it’s a buzz and I have a few more reveals coming up.
If you’re interested in getting something similar done click on the link for my FAQ page where I answer queries on my process etc.
“Card night, and we fly out tomorrow”
Oil on Aluminum Composite Panel
750mm x 520mm
SOLD
COMMISSION
Working in a remote mine your a long way from family, but friends are all around you. If it’s a small mine like the one I worked at it gets to be like a family in the bush.
After a long day and a long swing some of crew like to get together the night before the fly and have a ‘friendly’ game of Texas Hold ‘em!
The stakes are high, bragging rights for the next swing, the opportunity to be the slinger of shit at the Pre-start meeting the next morning at 5.30 which can be a real show sometimes!!
My mate Vivek approached me about doing a painting that would make a great memento of his time at Osborne mine, we settled on this image, the night before you fly home is a special night indeed, if you have been there you know, so an image that brings those emotions back is a great reminder indeed.
In the painting are a wide variety of characters with an enormous skill and experience range, electricians, fitters, mining engineers, mechanics, power station operators, supervisors, fixed and mobile plant operators and more…
Their abilities, skills and responsibilities overlap and there’s not much as a team they can’t accomplish!!
I have flown, worked, drank, laughed and shared mini adventures with all of them and it was a pleasure and a great trip down memory lane when painting them.
To the FIFO people who get it done, onya
“Dr Martin Batstone “ Oil on linen 16” x 20”
This is a portrait study for a larger work I am planning to do, the subject is Dr Martin Batstone, Director of the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital Maxillofacial Unit, he led the team of professionals whose efforts saved my wife’s life, for that my family and I are eternally grateful. He is a humble, caring, charming and thankfully hugely capable man and it is an honour and a pleasure to paint him. Portraits are an ongoing challenge for me and I love painting them,
Cheers hope you like it.
“Miss Rose”
oil on linen
12” x 14”My granddaughter Rose turns 1 today, she is the cutest, happiest and engaging little person and as Grandparents we are so proud of her and her parents When her parents Matt and Sarah came to visit for Christmas, I knocked up this little portrait for the occasion, when Rose saw it… she was quite taken with it
“CIGAR”
Oil on Canvas 12'“ x 16”
The great Cigar, once the most valuable horse on the planet!
I was doing some horse paintings and I did a number of small paintings, portrait style, to improve my skills a bit. I really liked this one and have had it hanging over one of my doorways for a few years. I’ve been intending to paint more similar, so a good first step would be to let this one go and hook in and paint some more!
Horses like humans, and I suppose all creatures, have their individual personality and it is a great test to reveal that on canvas, I was going for Majestic on this one!!
“Abby”
oil on linen
16 x 20
Abby was my friends Kevin and Sarah’s best mate, sadly she passed and Kev asked me to paint her, I said I would, and do my best to do her memory justice. Having always had dogs, I am a real dog person so it is an emotional experience painting them, that and Abbey looks very similar to my dog Rangi! Kev is very happy and is going to surprise Sarah with it, could be an emotional moment Hope you like it
“Petunia”
oil on linen
16” x 20”
Petunia, small in size-big in stature!
I have done a painting of her and her companion Brick, enjoyed trying to capture their characters,
I had great reference for the paintings but I try to put my own spin on them
Brick will follow
“Brick”
oil on canvas
16” x 20
This is Brick, he is Petunias housemate, Brick doesn’t take shit from anyone... except Petunia
“Bella and Dave”
Oil on linen
16”x 20”
My family and I are real dog lovers so it’s not surprising that I am a bit of a “Pooch Painter “, this is one I did for our friends Dave and Deb, the pooch is Bella… or The Mutt, as Dave calls her.
I picked this image to show her size and character and, with Dave’s hand and her eyes, hopefully showing the obvious connection between them.
“Rennie and the boys”
Oil on ACP
600mm x 600mm
My good friend Claudia asked me if I could do a painting for her of her brother in law and close friend Rennie. Rennie passed recently and Claudia had a photo of her two sons, Rennie and their two dogs all on a quad bike. It was late afternoon, cane season, the Basilisk range in the background, the boys, now in their late twenties, happy as , crammed on to the bike with their uncle, the dogs looking around to see when they are going to start moving and getting wind in their fur!!!
Very North Queensland, very Innisfail, very Moresby.
I knew Rennie, and Claudia and her husband Michael have been huge supporters of mine for many years, so I was honored and happy to be able to reproduce the photo in oils for Claudia. It was a pleasure to paint and the family were very happy with the result.
I am in between jobs at the moment and keen to paint, so if anyone is thinking about a painting they might like done let me know, I do them for a very reasonable price and enjoy the challenge of trying to create a unique special artwork for people to enjoy
“Michael “ oil on linen 16” x 20”
This week with limited time I painted a figure/character study with one hue varying the values, it also known as a grisaille.
The subject is Michael Fomenko, a local legend in Far North Queensland, who recently passed away. He was a very interesting character, son of a Russian diplomat who competed in the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne and against his family’s wishes went to Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea to help indigenous peoples, a wonderful man and worth looking up.. my family and I often saw him in all sorts of weather running on the side of the road to his rainforest camp hidden in the hills between Cairns and Innisfail, with only what he has in painting.
I may do a full painting one day as he was a resilient and tough man who really loved the rainforest
“The Cassowary, Sketch #4”
Oil on canvas
200mm x 150mm
The Cassowary another amazing creature in the list of Australia’s Fauna and one that is deeply entwined into the world I live in.
It is the symbol for the region of Australia I live in, The Cassowary Coast, the graphic symbol for the region is an outline of a Cassowary forming rainforest, a beach and the sea, very clever and effective.
They inhabit the rainforest that surrounds me and often cruise along the creek at the bottom of my block, casually picking fruit off the native trees and bushes.
I encounter them often, walking through my yard, when I’m running in the rainforest, and even had one standing out the front, looking over the verandah, checking out our bedroom...
A complex creature to draw or paint, but fun...hopefully do a bigger version one day!
“Tommy and the Red Dust Healing”
Oil on ACP
24” x 30”
When I was commissioned to paint Thomas Powell I thought “I’m going to love doing this” … and I did!!!
Tom is the original designer and founding director of Red Dust Healing, a specific cultural healing program that has been delivered to over 14,000 people across NSW and QLD, and rapidly spreading to the world!
Tom has been recognized by the United Nations amongst others for his work.
Red Dust Healing is a program for the heart not the head and is proving amazingly successful.
This is more than enough reason to paint Tom, for me though the pleasure comes mainly from the fact that he has been in my life since we were young boys. He is my brother Colin’s best mate, he is a little brother to me, his family are like my family, we practically saw each other every day growing up, in the summers we swam in the river, played cricket in the back yard, played ‘catch me if you can’ till late in the evenings, both sets of parents yelling for us to come home!!
In the winters we played football, fought, wrestled, got up to all sorts of mischief.
As we got older not much changed and despite distance we have remained close.
Red Dust Healing is formed from the love and respect he had for his dad Noel, like my dad back in the day an Earth-Moving contractor. The memories of his dad are tied tightly to the red dust of NSW and the grader , a 12G Cat, his dad operated. I loved his mum and dad they were cool and always great to me.
Recently I was with my dad going through his photo albums, mainly black and white pics of his earth moving days and there was Noel on his grader… so I put it in the painting, and if you look close, Tom and his dad are in the cabin!!
Tom is a beautiful man, smart, a wonderful athlete in his day and so caring.
Growing up together was a ball, he was asked once was there much antagonism between indigenous and white, he replied “ we were all pretty colour blind back there “, says it all, very Tom!!!
And both Tom and Col loved the painting.
Hope you like it
“My Boys getting inked”
Oil on Canvas
700mm x 400mm
It’s great to see other artists at work, this is a painting I did of the boys at the Hunter and Fox studio in Beaconsfield, Sydney, hard at it!
Sanchez on the left and Sean on the right
Hope I captured the eclectic atmosphere boys.. a great day, Matt, Liam, and Lyle!!!
We all got a piece done
“The Boys From Blackwood sing Ghost”
Oil on canvas
500mm x 700mm
My painting of the Hill Top Hoods
Over the past 18 months I have been painting in my room at work at night, sitting in front of the easel, splashing paint onto the canvas and listening to various playlists on Spotify.
I listen to all sorts of music from blues to rock, grunge to disco!! There are gems in all styles, but one group was particularly good to listen to, and that was Aussie hip hop legends the Hill Top Hoods
Painting away I really listened to their lyrics, melodies and beat, unreal!!
I wanted to paint some figures so I picked the Hoods!!
They hold dear the Australian vernacular and use it to the max, their stories are great and sung with fantastic imagery!.
This painting shows them singing ‘Ghost ‘ with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, classic , great fun to paint
“Starman”
Oil on ACP
18” x 24”
5 years ago David Bowie returned to the stars... if you ever want inspiration for imagination and creativity look to this mans life!
He constantly pushed boundaries,questioned what was accepted and re-invented himself.
Always seeking out and surrounding himself with the most adventurous people in music, art and fashion he left us with a legacy they will be hard to top.
As a person who works in a very non arty environment I sometimes struggle letting go and giving my creative side enough...put on some David Bowie and straight away I’m starting to loosen up!!
This is my tribute to him, Starman...’there’s a Starman waiting in the sky , he’d like to come and meet us,
but he thinks he’d blow our minds’...and he did!!
This is him, as Ziggy, wearing the Kansai Yamamoto woodland creature outfit at Hammersmith Odeon, London show, 1973, I put him floating from Mars, heading to Earth, a starman, looking for the Spiders!! Not of this Earth,its how his songs, music and appearance made me feel as a teenager back then, and still does... one cool dude
“Behemoth”
Oil on canvas panel
600mm x 450mm
Working out, pumping iron, throwing some weights about...something I have been doing for 30 odd years. I’m no bodybuilder but I have put some hours in at the gym. I love the challenge, the physical and mental test, the feeling of accomplishment when you get through your sets, and the strength and confidence you get from being consistent and committed.
I wanted to do a painting, not of flexing and mirrors, shiny chrome, skin tight Lycra or bright lights!
I wanted to show the individual challenge, the narrowed focus of you and the rep, how the amount of weight or surrounds don’t matter, it’s about form and getting through your sets, pushing through that last rep!!
And who else to show it but the man himself, on his own, basement gym, barefoot and trackie daks.The man who changed the perception of lifting weights and bodybuilding forever.
Painted in the Chiaroscuro style to empathize the moment!
“Baby Groot “
Oil on linen
16” x 20”
I got interested in drawing and
then painting because of my love for Marvel comics back in the early 70’s, my brothers and I bought them and read them religiously, and all I wanted to be was a Marvel artist!! Bit hard when you grow up in the bush
That love for Marvel and DC comics has passed on to my sons, but my wife Trish not so much... till now!! Guardians of the Galaxy and Groot has changed that!!
This is the first Marvel Superhero I have ever painted, there ya go
Hope you like it
Trish loves Baby Groot, and I love Trish..Groots cool!!
Here’s my painting of Baby Groot for her.
It hangs in the hallway near our bedroom so she sees him in the morning and has a smile and the same when she goes to bed, that makes me smile, as an artist , to me that’s what it’s about!!
“James”
Oil on canvas
900mm x 700mm
The bronc rider in this painting is James, my friend Cassie's dad. The reference photo I used was taken in his rodeo days before he was seriously and permanently injured in a campdrafting accident 16 years ago. The people in the background are his family at the age they were before he was hurt. It was an honor and moving experience to paint this piece.
“Conan x 3, a Frazetta tribute “
Oil on canvas
350mm x 550mm
This painting is a tribute to Frank Frazetta, it is a combination of three of his famous book covers for Robert E Howard’s Conan the Barbarian novels.
I started it by doing a rough sketch in a spare piece of canvas board 10 years ago and decided to add the background and colour this week.
His drawing and painting skills were second to none and a master of his genre, I idolized him growing up and seeing his work gave me a strong desire to draw and paint!! Not everyone’s cup of tea but I love this shit
I don’t paint like Frank, but I paint because of Frank!