Oils that are Oils

"Oils that are oils"

At age 11 to 12 in 6th class at Primary School I was very interested in painting pictures, particularly of country scenes.

I was fascinated by the textures of green shades in a picture contained in a cluster of trees... I loved the 3D feel of painting in oils.

The class teacher singled out two students to paint in oils and produce artwork that would represent the school in a State Demonstration of the work of students from that school. I was one of them and put a lot of effort into a scene depicting soil erosion... not because I was politically aware or an activist, but because I had a particular perception of the 3D nature in a natural scene... The landscape was there and suddenly it was eroded and parts of what should be there was replaced by something else. The broken away soil with the deep cuts into the soil revealing the cuts in random and zigzag notion was good to paint. Apparently my picture won an award - though I never saw it.

I didn't have a lot of opportunity to settle into the peaceful life of painting and during my teens had an occasion to give it a go.. A few pictures emerged but they were lost in time. Only one was I able to hold on to throughout the turbulent years.

There were two oil paintings that were significant to me done in those times around the age of 16. The first was The Country Scene.... and the second was inspired by looking at the first picture from a different angle (in this case.. inverted) and seeing something very original in it.. a Volcano scene....Unfortunately a Scientologist, who saw the work, "confiscated it (for my mental health I guess), as it was "significant" in some way. It was years later I was to discover the secret of the significance which was to do with the genus of Dianetics.