Mick Pospischil's Art: A Weekend in Warialda

Saturday 31 October 2015, 3pm

I spent last weekend on an arty expedition to Warialda with fellow artist Chris Fletcher. We arrived in Warialda at 9am after I took a wrong turn near Texas, which cost us an hour.

After a burger for breakfast (yuck), we set off to look for Gragin Peak, crossing Murdering Creek along the way. Might have a fraught history. I’d bought some acrylics (also yuck!) and wanted to try some plein-air painting without using charcoal, which I hadn’t attempted in many years. The crudeness of the acrylic layer turned out to be an asset. It produced a much clumsier image than I would have produced with oils. I finished it from memory with oils over the top a couple of days ago. It has a rather tenuous connection with reality.

“Gragin Peak”

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Fletcher perversely ignored the obvious peak and did a stunner of the fields –

We moved on to get a distant view of the peak from the highway, stopping at a farm and getting permission to draw from their hill. This time Chris went for the obvious.

I ignored the attractions of the silos and drew the view –

“Twin Peaks”

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So late in the afternoon we found ourselves at Cranky Rock Recreation Reserve and realised we didn’t need to go anywhere else for the rest of the weekend. I started by tackling the massive rocks on the other side of the creek from the high viewing platform –

“Cranky Rocks”

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Chris tackled the same view later that night –

while I stayed put and drew the campground –

“Cranky Bins”

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“Cranky Trees”

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Next morning I was feeling a bit seedy, but managed to get started with a track near the viewing platform, followed by Warialda Creek –

“Cranky Track”

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“Cranky Creek”

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That night I drove back up the track to draw a field that had taken my fancy. Balls of sheet lightning were busy in the distance –

“Cranky Lightning”

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The lighter marks in the closest field were made by my clothes dragging across the charcoal. Chaos is my friend again. Later on, back in the camp I attacked Chris as he worked –