This winter past, 2017, I decided to work small, about one third the size I am used to, and to treat the intensely dramatic Tasmanian sunset in a rocky landscape more as I would a still life painted indoors.

I wanted to create sensations of solidity and roundness in the rocks and trees, and investigate the long black shadows cast by the trees and even by myself sometimes as my own shadow preceded me up the hill and into the forest.

I also thought it would be interesting to keep a record of my colour beginnings because these underpaintings become lost in the process of painting.  Perhaps lost is the wrong word because without these base layers of pigment the top coats would lack richness.

Below I am showing the beginning and the end of a painting together in order to indicate that the first stages are drawn directly in colour, without line, in order to establish a rhythmical basis for the composition. If I used line, I might not be able to see the colour basis for the subject.

Jonathan Bowden