Beehives at Avoca: Morning Light

Abstract

Perhaps the usual association with plein air painting is with that established with the European Impressionists of the 19th Century. Their use of newer technologies (collapsible easels, manufactured art products and paints), an awareness of black and white tonal photographic images and the changing societal role of artist, lead to the enquiry and production of work that we typically see under that umbrella term. The painting The Beehives at Avoca Beach: Morning Light therefore acknowledges aspects of European Impressionist tradition –the title even borrows from Monet’s works – but establishes it firmly in an Australian context (while avoiding the Australian Heidelberg concerns). This research seeks to respond to being in space and is much more about multiple, ‘wide angle’ expression of the experience of space. It utilises contemporary acrylic house paints applied directly with dynamic response and sensitivity to colour – it is purposely about expression, through paint, of lived experience in real space, rather than about fleeting light on a surface.