An Essay by Sebastian Goldspink, October 2020
Painting Farther, Painting Further
A young man wakes with a start – his newborn daughter’s cries pierce through the silence of a family home nestled in the darkness of the pre-dawn. He bundles her up against his chest and cloaks her in the warmth of a parka as he heads out into the hazy winter streets of inner-city Sydney. At this time of day the moon is visible as the sun is almost to rise. The father’s eyes are blurry from a lack of sleep. This time of morning is hard to define, a threshold between day and night, a reverse twilight. A blue hue.
Sleepwalking, Julian Meagher’s latest exhibition, presents a series of paintings that could best be described as a ‘body’ of work. Each offering acting as a fragment of a whole yet each containing the totality of the artist’s concerns – a collection of landscapes that act as portraits and a suite of portraits that serve as landscapes.
Meagher has evolved from early series that focused individually on the figurative, still life or the landscape and has united these aspects into a personal and powerful presentation. The portraits depict his young family at a state of peace, sleeping calmly. The landscapes are drawn from costal trips the artist has undertaken – importantly his aim is not to depict the landscapes in a photorealistic way but rather to capture the essence of those places and his feelings towards them. In the same manner, his portraits also seek to hold onto an essence of the subject through the lens of his love for his family. Meagher’s techniques have evolved as well. His use of thin layers of paint in the landscapes beg for closer inspection, his beautiful fades of colour reflecting the tumult of the elemental shakeup that occurs at a shore line. There is a lightness that is belied by the pressure the artist faces in getting these effects in one pass, no room for hiding mistakes under layers of impasto. A process of reduction, of scraping back layers and working with the almost exposed ground of the canvas. This is delicate work – spontaneity rendered in intent.
Although the subjects explored are universal, one can’t help but read them through the lens of these strangest of times. For Meagher, these works will come to reflect this period and in particular the first lockdown his state endured. For many, these times have been about a process of simplification, taking stock of what’s important -family and the freedom to explore the natural environment have taken on a heightened sense of centrality against a background of restrictions of movement and often a dislocation of families and generations. Australia’s run into these times followed quickly on the heels of a major and historic climate event in the form of the bushfires. For Meagher, our relationship to our planet and the earth he leaves his children has become a growing concern. This series of works reflects these concerns but also shows a painter at a turning point, a maturing in practice, concept and ultimately self.
The artist looks one last time at the studio before he turns out the lights. His eyes squint as he takes in paintings in various stages of completion, the daylight that bathes his studio having vanished many hours before. He’s trying to make sense, to see where he is at. He’s too close, too tired – these are questions for tomorrow. He pulls the large iron door shut as he descends into evaporated streets. Traffic lights reflected in the oily light coat of rain that has fallen since he arrived. He turns the key of his home and tip toes through a creaky hallway. He takes stock of his loves, squinting to see them in the darkness. His wife, his children, safe. Now and only now can he sleep.
