Trish Hart recalls great albatrosses of the past and dreams of painting life-sized whales.
By Trish Hart
AN artist can fly high as well as low. My work was selling and buyers were getting pleasure out of owning an original, then the galleries closed. Now I am on my own and struggling to understand selling online.
Still I shouldn't complain. I moved to The Gurdies 13 years ago hoping to find a forever home with a view of the sea and be near family.
Now I am sipping on a local red that I helped harvest, dabbing a canvas with paint (I must stop dipping my paint brush in the wine) and being entertained by the feathered visitors to the deck – all with a stunning panoramic island view. BLISS!
AN artist can fly high as well as low. My work was selling and buyers were getting pleasure out of owning an original, then the galleries closed. Now I am on my own and struggling to understand selling online.
Still I shouldn't complain. I moved to The Gurdies 13 years ago hoping to find a forever home with a view of the sea and be near family.
Now I am sipping on a local red that I helped harvest, dabbing a canvas with paint (I must stop dipping my paint brush in the wine) and being entertained by the feathered visitors to the deck – all with a stunning panoramic island view. BLISS!
Pity they are not albatrosses visiting though I did have two months of them gliding in and out of view when I travelled south to the Antarctic 30 years ago on an Australian Antarctic arts fellowship. I fell through the sea ice and lost a very expensive video camera and fell in love with the helicopter pilot. The ship, Nella Dan, sank on her next voyage.
| Life now is considerably less exciting, though I do hold my breath as I try and get the albatrosses’ wing shapes correct … the layout of the primary and secondary feathers … the muscles that stretch across the wings that keep these magnificent birds airborne and gliding over the waves. Luckily I have lots of photos and videos to remind me. A future goal is to paint a giant mural of whales swimming past on a spare wind blade in Wonthaggi. Imagine being able to stand next to a 30 metre life-sized blue whale, not just a bone or two. What a great selfie opportunity (when we are allowed out)! Trish has written and illustrated five children’s books and won the Environment Award for Children’s Literature in 1999. She has had two exhibitions at the Melbourne Maritime Museum. You can see her work at www.trishhart.com. |  Trish Hart and the Nella Dan in Antarctica. The ship sank on its next voyage. |