The landscapes, streetscapes, interiors and objects which interest me are always personal. They remind me of particular moments, of things that have happened to me, or happened in history, or both. I never want to paint subjects just because they are beautiful, or interesting in an abstract way. When I paint pictures it is because I have been there at a particular time in my life. The image prompts the memory. The memory infuses the image. The quick sketch above, done in brown ink, gouache and acrylic, was based on my first response to a distant view of the Capertee Valley. It was an important moment: I was there with my daughter Obelia, we were exploring the roads north of Lithgow, it was the first time I had visited this vista and our first travel together north of the mountains. I was meaning to do a big painting based on the sketch, but that did not happen because I travelled into the valley itself and painted there with John Wilson and a group of artist learners and then began to understand the history of the valley and the meaning of its places. That first sketch was fresh and fast. The completed works I am still planning will come into being at a different place and time. Each will have its own character, from that momentary interaction.
Wherever I go that makes me want to paint becomes a place I want to understand more. I might be there alone with my camera, or a sketch book, I might be thinking about something at the time, or remembering something. But it is the place that speaks, and wants to be heard. I might find a series of old photographs, like those of corrugated iron used as building materials in the back streets of Glebe in the early 1960s, and realise that I have been obsessed with corrugated iron ever since I was a child on the Hawkesbury River when all our water came from a corrugated iron tank and it was my job to tap the rungs in drought weather to see if we had enough left for a bath. See some more reflections on corrugated iron on the page “Hill End”.
So here I have started to gather together thoughts and ideas that have touched my previous work, or work I am now planning. I will add more images and comments when I come to work on them, and develop new projects.
All photographs on these pages were taken by me other than the archival images which appear occasionally. I am also developing a site with more focus on the specifically photographic images some of which I use as a support to my painting. Visit my Image Field. /annettehamiltonimages.wordpress.com.
Annette Hamilton - Artist 