Alice Springs 2

general :: posted on June 20th, 2008

sunset through the river gum trees

We arrived at our first camping spot in a dry river bed at sunset. Any later would have been disaster as we had to travel through quite a bit of sand to arrive at the beautiful and peaceful spot near Glen Helen. There was one other camper quite a distance from us and completely out of sight. The rock formations really come to life at sunset and sunrise in the red centre. During the day the brightness of light washes out the tones, unless there is cloud cover which offers a different colour intensity again.

sunrise over mount sonder

This means that you really need to be up at the crack of dawn to catch the action! The sunrise continues to light up the hills and mountains and ranges for a while - at least 30 minutes - and the shifts from pastels to strong tones is quite something to see.

At dawn we watched the sun light up Mount Sonder which was the most stunning array of mauves and peach tones. It is, of course, a very popular landscape for artists but we only stayed for the one night and moved on by mid morning, so not enough time to really get acquainted with the view. There is quite a strong recent tradition of watercolour painting in Aboriginal communities, introduced by the missionaries, and their skill in landscape painting is something to see.

abi giblin, acrylic on paper

We sat in the river bed amongst the rolled stones and sandy crush and worked our first paintings for the trip! Abi let me know straight away that despite being only 14 she has a passion and skill in art that far exceeds anything I had imagined! She used a palette knife to produce this wonderful view of the rock face at Glen Helen.

I faced the other way…

acrylic on canvas

This journey meant that we had to use acrylic paint rather than oils, because there was no way we could transport wet paintings. The acrylic presented a challenge for me and I decided that they are really sketches for larger works, which I intend to work on at home. We had canvas pieces in a square of about 40cm to play with.

2 Responses to “Alice Springs 2”

  1. Steven Says:
    June 28th, 2008 at 4:16 am

    Sounds very exciting missy. Nice texture BTW. I really like paintings that have that texture working in the elements.

  2. suzanne Says:
    June 30th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

    All I can say is wow! I’ve looked at all the postings and paintings and well … wow! very impressive! x