In hindsight it was perfectly obvious that I’d be looking for a more refreshing subject matter after the inland works, and so the coast had again attracted my attention. I’m not a great water activities person but I do find a wonderful plateau of peace when I am in close proximity to water.

I’m fascinated by man’s insistence and ability to live in harmony with this most dangerous and scary of natural elements. The ceaseless action and the relentless music of moving water can be all too distracting and captivating, so I was pleased to find an abundance of material in man made objects by the sea edge. In the main I concentrated on the Port Phillip area taking in the pristine beaches and small enveloping local bays. Boats, sheds and jetties filled many a canvas, most of them displaying the scars and patina of long confrontations with the sea. Bold changes occurred on my palette as it moved to a higher colour key and the application of materials became far more “impressionistic” than in previous works.

The waters of the lake at Daylesford also called for my attention and so the series of “Lake House Lady” images involving Larissa’s dingy evolved. In them we can see the return of the aerial snapshot, the “pointillist” layering of paint on the canvas and the obsession with aggressive lighting. The drafting meant that there was a lot of “how come we never noticed that before” going on.