I will be holding a solo exhibition at the Catherine Asquith Gallery from the 21 September- 10 October, 2010.

All welcome to the Opening night 6-8pm on Thursday 23 September

Catherine Asquith Gallery

48 Oxford Street, Collingwood Vic 3066

www.catherineasquithgallery.com

T +61 3 9417 2828

The Floating World

The Floating World paintings are inspired by ideas of sensuality, immersion and imagination. Although abstract in nature, my paintings reference bodily experience, particularly the experience of ‘floating over’ an underwater landscape.

They were initially inspired by experiences of snorkeling in the Leeuwin Current, which washes down the coast of Western Australia, all the way from Ningaloo Reef to Rottnest Island. This warm current allows tropical corals and other marine life to flourish in what would otherwise be the cold Indian Ocean.

In some ways the intensity of immersion in this world, or of moving and floating over any landscape, with feelings of both apprehension and pleasure, reminds one of ideas of ‘surrender’, of giving in to a movement that transports you, a bodily 'letting go'.

My painting also explores the possibilities inherent in the act of painting, and paint itself. My aim is to paint images in which, through juxtaposing texture and colour, I create ‘worlds’ that encompass both illumination/surface and darkness/depth.

In this body of work I also consider and reference Japanese printmaker Hokusai and the idea of ‘the Floating World’ or Ukiyo, which described the urban and pleasure-seeking life style of the red-light district of Edo (modern Tokyo), Japan. Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849) was a master of Ukiyo-e - Japanese woodblock prints of ‘the floating world’ and Shunga, erotic prints. His sophisticated world of urban pleasures was also animated by a love of nature, particularly the sea.

The first paintings in the Floating World series were exhibited in 2009 at Johnston Gallery, Perth and Summit Gallery, Calgary, Canada. This exhibition incorporates some of this earlier work and new work.