New Views

New views from other windows in far north Queensland.

Sometimes you have to travel far away to get a new view on life. Or it can be as simple as changing the view outside your window and looking at the stars instead of rooflines and trees.

Visiting my brother in far north Queensland this week, I realise that I don’t often see the night sky. The windows in the house he and his family built are all individual, many of them sourced from the local tip. Each room has its own particular view of the rainforest and each set of windows are different.

From these windows I have a new view on life, a longer perspective on what’s happening in my own life and where I want to go. It prompts me to see things in new ways, to try something different, to be a bit bolder, a bit looser, a bit more expansive.

I’ve approached my daily artworks from this new perspective, facing a blank white square in the spirit of adventure rather than in the way I would normally chronicle my daily life. I realise that collage has kept me safe, exploring the materiality of paper rather than developing my drawing and painting skills.

Now with no stash of papers to hand, I’ve brought out my water paints and am confronted by my own perceived inadequacies. I start by drawing lines with my inktense pencils then add water to get the colours flowing. This helps remove the need for perfection.

It’s a real skill using water colours, inviting the light to illuminate a view through the absence rather than addition of paint. But as with everything, you get better the more you do it.

Maybe that’s the same with perspective; trying to see things from a new view allows them to come into better focus, where you can see the luminosity shine through. The trick of course is to consciously pack that perspective into your bags to take home. So that you can open up your windows and see the stars.

That’s when the small vignettes of life seen through windows can be brought out to remind you of those feelings of expansiveness. Art becomes a window with new views.

View from the bedroom. Daily artwork 10 x 10cm .

View from the dining room, Daily artwork 10 x 10cm.