Snakes, Spiders and a Painter’s Eye

“Rebecca is an incredibly talented artist who has an innate ability to capture the very soul of the valley. I feel as if the land is speaking to me through her use of colour and texture on canvas-they remind me of home every time I gaze upon them and they evoke the heat, the intense storms, the very essence of the amazing landscape that is the Hunter (Australia). I love my paintings so much and feel privileged to have them in my home. I know I will collect more in the coming years.”

—Susan Arrowsmith.

I close my eyes and feel the warm sun on my back, the circling sound of the wind in the grass and the sweep of my brush. There is nothing more tranquil, peaceful and wildly free than being in the Australian bush and painting her splendor.
The idea of one of the world’s most venomous snakes do tug at the back of my mind, yet the lure of Australia’s vast plains and majestic skies always entice my painter’s curiosity. Her powerful colour palette and rogue visceral texture is a feast for any painter’s eye.
At times it is challenging to get outside. Insects, spiders and snakes are at the back of my mind, when I sit among the tall grass and paint the sprawling landscape in front of my eyes.I delight in the challenge of capturing her wildness and beauty. Putting brush to canvas to explain her emotional side. My intuitive brush marks are on occasion rough and wild. Energetic, free and vibrant. She isn’t a landscape to romanticize. This isn’t a low, moody and delicate European sky, but a bright, vibrant and often penetrating light. It can be uncompromising and intense.
I seek to display this same intensity; a raw beauty through the alla prima painting technique.The landscape isn’t manicured and controlled, it is unbridled, capricious and free, akin to a wild Australian brumby horse. If my paintings are dramatic or foreboding, just the way the sky looks before or during a storm, it’s because I wish for the viewer to experience that same passion I see.
I want the viewer to take a moment to reflect both on the minuteness of being human, together with the fact that being human is a marvelous; an awe-inspiring reality. I see the modern discourse between religion and scientific exploration has all but blinded man to the innate and inherent connection we all have with nature.It’s as if all our knowing and understanding has made us forget that we are all an integral part of Nature.

Yours in Art,
Bec xx