Glenn Miller Blog

June Tupicoff at Philip Bacon Galleries

I've just perused the invitation catalogue for the upcoming exhibition of June Tupicoff at Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane, running from 25th November to 20th December. I'm very impressed by the oils on linen which are featured, especially the canvas titled 'Glory Blue, which at first glance could be large Aboriginal dot painting, but this has far more substance. Upon closer inspection it reveals itself to be a detailed close-up of foreground grasses.

There are obvious references to Monet in all the works. I do not mean this in a negative way at all, far from it, for June's influences have lead to her own unique vision. The works in this catalogue are a wonderful display of fine detail and vibrant colour. They're quite stunning and I can't wait to see them 'in the flesh' so to speak.

Photographs of the Woolooga landscape

I''ve always done a lot of sketching in the country to gather new material for painting. Lately I've begun taking heaps of photographs and then manipulating the images using Corel Photo Paint. In the past, I basically only ever saw the mid to distant landscape, with the forground barely noticed. In my numerous sketch books there are pages of landscapes with almost nothing in the foreground. It's never been something that has interested me; my eyes are continually crawling over distant mountain ranges or a flat horizon, picking out the trees and rocks, the shadows and reflections and all the things that mess up the landscape. For me these are exciting.

Yet I pay no attention whatsoever to the ground under my feet. The grasses and rocks and sticks that are often lying around me are almost invisible to me.

That was until I began undertaking these trips with my partner, Debbie. She is a talented creative embroidery artist, preferring to use threads and fabrics. I'm quite envious of her natural sense of composition. When she takes photographs she gets right down in among the grasses and sometimes points the lens upward at the trees. The first time I ever saw her in action was such a strange experience; she came away from my Woolooga landscape, a landscape I had painted almost obsessively for many years, with photographs that could of been of some place I had never seen before. So fresh was her vision of a place so familiar to me. She has been a great influence, in that she has opened my eyes to what is close around me. Not that it has changed the way I paint or what I want to capture, but it has given me a greater sense of the overall 'texture' within the landscape that faces me. I now look forward to these outings very much and have yet to come away without at least one photgraph that when digitally enhanced stirs me into a creative frenzy.

You can view Debbie's website at: www.debbiemercer.com.au

Yes, I know the layout of her site is similar to mine. Reason is that I have created hers as well as my own. Due to me being no webmaster, in fact a complete novice, once I had struggled through the building of my site, I found it easier to simply use that wonderful option: 'save as'.

Origins of a Nude Landscape

In 2004, following a successful solo exhibition at Soho Galleries in Sydney, I untertook a trip back to the Cania Gorge near where I had grown up. I went with my life model, with the intention to gather new material for my next exhibition.

After settling in to our cabin at the caravan park located on the banks of the 'Three Moon Creek, the rather diminutive creek that had created the gorge through eons of gentle erosion, we went for a walk along one of the many tracks. We decided to follow the track to 'The Overhang', walking on a gradual incline up and around some granite outcrops, past 'Dripping Rock' a formation that has never been know to dry up even during severe drought, and gradually descend again to a huge sandstone shelf under which is a large open space where the temperature is eerily cool despite outside temperatures being extremely hot.

This was the 'end of the line' for this bushwalking track. The creek was stoney and only just trickling between pools of clear water. We sat for a while but eventually I began wandering around the place taking lots of photographs and doing several quick sketches. I wanted to get a better view of the actual overhang. I crawled up over some fallen logs and in between huge boulders and came out into an open area a little furtehr upstream. I called Rita, who soon joined me.

We went further, trying to get far enough back to be able to photograph the full cliff that towered above us. Over more boulders and rock ledges, careful to keep our footing. We came to an even more open area, which was encircled by a barrier of trees and hanging vines. I was able to get the photograph I was after. But looking around I noticed Rita beginning to undress ...