Mick Pospischil's Art: Flatlands 4

Flatlands 4

Next day was spent running classes at Mexboro, 5km from Warren. Much fun was had by all and I was taken by the dilapidation and chaos and returned the next day, accompanied by my student of the day before, Jane, who wanted a demonstration. I had resisted any demonstrations while tutoring as I didn’t want to lead them. My approach to tutoring isn’t about ‘copy me doing this’, it’s about pointing out errors and problems in the students’ own work, and how to deal with the issues that arise.

“Mexboro #1”

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I’d finished this by the time Jane arrived at 8, so I did a drawing of the back door of Mexboro for her. Classic single-point perspective.

“Mexboro #2”

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Thanks to Lisa Minner for the pix with me in it. This one’s a stunner –

I spent the weekend back at the Wetlands Centre, meeting and greeting the visitors. One thing that surprised me with the exhibition was the almost unanimous preference that the punters had for my drawings over my paintings. I think what’s happening is that the audience likes the way the drawings don’t spell everything out, like the paintings do. It leaves more space for the imagination to come into play. I’m kind of reassessing my role as an artist – painter or drawer? I’m even thinking about going back to plein air painting and see what happens. Might even try using those yucky acrylics as the base layer and glazing oils over the top, in order to get them finished in one sitting. I don’t think I’ve done any plein air painting in over 20 years.

Jude Fleming finally showed up on Saturday and wanted to do some aaart with me and we agreed to go out to her small block on the Ewenmar Creek on Sunday night to have a crack at some dusk/night drawing. One drawing at dusk went well, but the one done in the dark later was a mess. This is the one that worked –

“Ewenmar”

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I stayed on after Bill left on Monday. I wanted to get two drawings done that I hadn’t had time for before. I woke at 4am (old money), now 5am (new money). Daylight saving had kicked in. When I arrived at Jude’s place, she was up as promised, busily preparing last night’s roast lamb for the day’s repast. We took off after coffee and arrived at Billabulla before dawn. We took off down the rough track and I drove straight past the tank, windmill and gate that marked the location of the Blue Pool, being completely distracted by our conversation.

Eventually I realised I’d gone too far when I spied an aboriginal encampment on the other side of the river. A young bloke was up and about, so I hailed him and asked for directions. Our shouting aroused the rest of the camp, and two bleary-eyed elders emerged from their beds on the back of two trailers, where they’d been sleeping under the stars. The gent informed me I’d gone about a mile too far. I found the gate, water tank and windmill on the second try and couldn’t believe I’d driven straight past it.

With Jude happily ensconced at the Blue Pool, I wandered off overland looking for my quarry. Eventually I stumbled into it about a k away and set to work in the glorious morning light –

“A-62”

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It was an old Caterpillar front-end loader used by the redgum sleeper cutters, abandoned some time ago. Jude had done a painting of a bunch of trees with some vibrant textures in the grass while I was away.

We took off for Haddon Rig for the last drawing, arriving in the oppressive heat to find Sally deep in conversation with her interior designer, planning her new kitchen. It was too bloody hot and we decided to go back to town and return in the late afternoon. I had a refreshing nanna nap.

We found the old mud-brick soldier-settler house we were looking for without any problems. It had been built over the boundaries of three blocks to satisfy the settlement conditions of all three.

“The Guardian”

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My heartfelt thanks go to the indefatigueable Bill Phillips of RiverSmart, who organised all the locations and the exhibition itself, in fact everything, including accommodation in the spare room of his small, sterile, but comfortable apartment in Warren. My thanks also go to my generous and friendly hosts (find them at http://www.rivertrails.com.au/trail/river-bedz/ ), and indeed the warm welcome I got from the whole community. I met some fascinating people and learned so much. It was a true working holiday. The art exhausted, but the surroundings and friendships refreshed.

When I left the Marshes after a week’s work last year, I thought I’d done the Marshes. So when Bill asked me to do the residency, I thought I might just be doing more of the same this year. The thought of that didn’t appeal. So when I found myself inside the local community with it’s rich cultural history I was surprised and a bit embarrassed by how little of it I’d explored last year. It’s given me a new appreciation of this amazing place and made me realise how much more of interest is still out there to be discovered. Maybe next year…….