Goanna’s Meal Time
Acrylic on Canvas.
2000mm x 1200mm
I like to think my work is uniquely Australian in both colour and subject matter. Unlike more expressive and intuitive artists my process is more time consuming and deliberate and, in recent times, is moving towards incorporating sculptural or three-dimensional elements in the paintings. ‘Goanna’s Meal Time’ was one of the first works to combine 2D and 3D elements. I wish to continue exploring this in future work.
This painting came about after sadly witnessing the road kill of a large goanna. I retrieved the poor creature and promptly made a rubber latex mould. Initially I cast the mould in concrete but after retiring I had 35 years of pay slips from the Department of Education that I had planned to dispose of in an artwork, so I turned them into papier mache and cast the goanna.
For me, creating this work was a very holistic, meaningful and satisfying process and after hearing this story I hope you will agree the work speaks of life, death and renewal on many levels.