Don't stare so romantically: a studio investigation

This project is an exploration of the Mt Hotham and Dinner Plain Ski Resorts as a contested site of the sublime in the Australian landscape. Through the materiality of the painting process I examine how the natural process of the seasons effects the architectural environment of the Ski Resorts and how the architectural overlays affect the landscape. Enviromental Literature informs my practice, as does the history of the sublime in Western painting. Instead of staring I want the viewer to experience my painting in a sensory way through the materiality of the paint process while reflecting on landscape which forms an iconic part of the Australian mythos, During the Great Dividing South Complex Bushfire of 2006-07 and the 2007 Floods of Gippsland I documented these natural disasters around where I live. This was the beginning of my interest in the fearful sublime and I went on to make work about these natural disasters.