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| Peta Dzubiel, Absence 1, 2013, painting posted on tree |
The Gunyah house is beautiful and set amongst the bush on a slope that leads to the waters of North Arm Cove, a gentle sheltered cove where a boat could seek refuge from a storm. During my two week residency the weather was all over the place, a sunny warm morning followed by a thunder storm at lunchtime and a calm mild afternoon. Typical Spring with four seasons experienced in one day. Towards the end of September the weather was windy and warm and a high danger for bushfires.
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| Peta Dzubiel, Beyond Pulpit, 2013, oil on board |
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| Peta with Harry, Bonnie and Ava on the Gunyah foreshore |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Have you seen Miranda II, oil on primed paper, 2013 |
Apart from
enjoying the exquisite natural surroundings of Gunyah, I was able to develop
and play with some ideas central to the Australian bushland environment and the
dense and twisted Gums of North Arm was the perfect place to do this. My focus
at Gunyah was to explore the anxiety of the Australian bush through ‘lost
children’ narratives. I found myself working with one image of two little
girls, painting it several times. When working with images of children, one can
often be overtaken by sentimentality. I tried to avoid this by not painting in
facial features or by blurring the portrait with a broad gestural sweep.
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| Peta Dzubiel, Drawing (lost children), sketchbook 2013 |
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| Bonnie hugging a Gunyah tree |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Girls, oil on paper, 2013 |
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| Peta working on the Gunyah foreshore |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Have you seen Miranda I, oil on primed paper, 2013 |
In the
studio and out in the field I favoured painting on primed paper as my support. For
one work, I painted two portraits of the same child’s face, one showing facial
detail while the other face is blurred and diminished like a fading memory. I wanted
to take these dual portraits out of the studio and into the bush, simply to see
how they would appear juxtaposed next to the landscape that enticed so many
children away from their families and homes to their own detriment and peril. By
pinning the paintings to the trees I found I could evoke something that alluded
to a memorial or memory, of loss, erasure, missing person’s posters or bush
telegraph, something along these lines. I found I could create a multi layered
experience with a two dimensional and traditional object, such as, a painting. I
took black and white photographs to document this work.
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| Peta Dzubiel, Looking North from Gunyah, 2013, oil on primed paper |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Gunyah at dusk, 2013, photograph |
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| Peta Dzubiel, North Arm Cove late afternoon, 2013, oil on primed paper |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Last light on North Arm Cove, 2013, photograph |
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| Peta Dzubiel, Erasure, 2013, oil on primed paper |
The location
of Gunyah and the spring light and colour, one could not help but do a few
little landscapes en plein air! I was lucky to have my family and a couple of
friends visit me and enjoy together the beautiful property. I enjoyed very much
driving into Tea Gardens on occasion and eating and drinking coffee at the
Boatshed. I also enjoyed exploring Mungo
Brush, seeing an abundance of flannel flowers and swimming in the aqua waters
of Jimmy’s Beach on the hottest day.
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| Tom, Harry, Ava and Bonnie painting Gunyah trees |
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| Tom, Harry, Ava and Bonnie painting Gunyah trees |
A sincere
thankyou to Kath Fries and the Gunyah property group that make this wonderful
residency available to artists. I found the two weeks very productive and
positive for my practice.
Peta
Dzubiel, 2013
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| Peta at Hawks Nest beach |
You can see more images of Peta's work on her website www.petadzubiel.com
