One constant throughout my life is my grandparents’ house in in Northwood, Sydney with its modest downstairs studio. My grandfather designed the house in the early 1930’s and painted in the studio until his death over fifty years later. I first visited shortly after I was born, and the house and studio have remained an essential part of my life.
With this series, I aim to evoke my connections with and memories of the studio and my grandfather from my perspective as a seven-year-old. I would quietly enter the corridor leading to the studio and watch him paint, in a paint encrusted jacket and jumper, always wearing a hat. He later said, ‘When I went to paint indoors in my later years I felt that I had to have the hat on, it was like bringing the outside in because that is the one flaw of studio work you can lose that marvellous feeling, like down the south coast hills…’.
With this series, I aim to evoke my connections with and memories of the studio and my grandfather from my perspective as a seven-year-old. I would quietly enter the corridor leading to the studio and watch him paint, in a paint encrusted jacket and jumper, always wearing a hat. He later said, ‘When I went to paint indoors in my later years I felt that I had to have the hat on, it was like bringing the outside in because that is the one flaw of studio work you can lose that marvellous feeling, like down the south coast hills…’.
