“Technically, I have been experimenting with varying paint application to a larger degree than previously, using a variety of tools and techniques in an attempt to amplify the feeling of space, light and movement.
I have been trying to see how I could combine my natural inclination towards capturing certain sensations of space, with this wonderfully evocative location and the characters in it. The characters are the trees and the dune grasses, the creek (sometimes cut off from the ocean and sometimes trickling down to it, delicately reunited), the monumental forms of the dunes themselves, and the always present, majestic and ominous sea. This place is like a natural shrine within the broader sweep of coastline, a particularly intense architecture of elements, distilling the general qualities.
There is a kind of wistfulness, even a quiet agony that I feel associated with wandering in truly beautiful places such as Marcus Creek – the afternoon, with its light and shadows raking perfectly across the sand, with its wonderful arrangement of colours, is fading, each moment dying into the next. And, even in the delight and majesty of this place, the savagery of Nature is also always present, the wine-dark mystery and relentless energy of the sea never too far from turning the breeze bitter and harsh.”
