Such beautiful paintings

Many years ago now, I saw a painting, in a little city gallery, by an artist I'd never heard of before. In the most beautifully dappled colours, he had captured the changing light from tall tree shade to reflections by water's edge and the explorations of meandering children along the bank. It reminded me of long and free Summer days spent in waterholes and by creek beds in the place where I grew up. I couldn't afford to buy that painting, even though I so very much wanted to, but I've never forgotten the beauty of it and the memory and feeling it left me with. The artist was Dale Marsh and I have been enthralled by his paintings ever since.

Dale Marsh's beautifully dappled colours.

(Detail from The Overgrown Garden, 1985.)

I didn't know it then, but it is his work that features on the giant mural that welcomes you to Bribie Island. Children running, full of joy, down a sand dune greet you as you drive off the bridge and onto the island. Dale Marsh loves this island, referring to it as the "cradle to my soul and the inspiration of my life". He is now 80years old and still painting this place that means so much to him. 

Bribie Island's welcoming mural.

(Image credit:  The Bribie Islander)

A deep love of place.

(Dale Marsh, 2019)

So it was to Bribie, for which Dale Marsh feels such affection, that I drove last Sunday to see Catching the Light, an exhibition of his work at the island's little seaside museum. Paintings inspired by and of the island adorned the walls of a light-filled gallery that looks out upon a view of the sea. Older paintings and more recent paintings and all so very beautiful.

Catching the Light Exhibition Booklet. 

In the quiet gallery, I spent much time with each and every painting. Looking up close at the brushstrokes and dabs of colour, layers of them, and then from distance to see the painting in its wholeness and wonder. 

 Detail from Morning Ramble at Red Beach

(Dale Marsh, 2016)

Detail from Reflections on a Posy. 

(Dale Marsh, 2014)

I think a deep connection to place, like that which Dale Marsh feels for Bribie Island and which inspires his incredible paintings still, is important for all of us; a love so profound that it gives us a home to drop anchor in and a safe harbour to come back to. Perhaps, that is what I felt when I saw that painting all those years ago now. I recognised "home" reflected in its dappled colours and in its light.

Meg

  

A White Jacaranda

Trees are the reason I love our particular little pocket of suburbia so much. The tall eucalypts of the state forest along the ridge and beyond, the paperbarks along the little creek, the native trees in so many of the gardens and the flowering of the Jacarandas in Spring. For me, it's the trees here that are the backdrop of my everyday world.

At the moment, when I look out beyond our verandah, I can see the beautiful purple highlights of the Jacaranda trees in bloom. This purple blossoming is synonymous with Spring in my city but, on a recent and rather hilly walk, I discovered a different Jacaranda, in a street not far from home...

Clusters of beautiful white Jacaranda flowers.

Instead of a blooming halo of purple blossoms, this young Jacaranda was covered in hundreds of pure white flowers. Oh, my! Looking up through its branches, to the sunny sky above, the white of its flowers set against the perfect blue Spring-sky background, was just gorgeous!

White blossoms and a blue sky. Sigh!

I could've laid down, right there on that footpath, for hours and happily looked up at those flowers and the wispy clouds drifting by. Instead, I've been back to visit it several times now, just to stand underneath it and look up!

Spring flowers adorn young branches.

Sometimes, the world offers up that which is so simple yet is so very beautiful. 

Meg

p.s.  A Little History...

The very first Jacaranda grown in Australia was planted in my city's Botanic Gardens back in 1864. It was a purple flowering variety and it grew & bloomed until it was knocked down in a cyclone in 1980. It is thought that it is this particular Jacaranda that features in the very popular painting, Under the Jacaranda, by the artist Godfrey Rivers. The painting hangs in the Queensland Art Gallery. I am thinking of taking a trip in to the gallery to see it. I wonder if there will be any Jacaranda flowers sprinkled on the floor underneath it when I visit?