Influenced and inspired by the Australian Aboriginal paintings based on cave drawings, images on bark and then modern Aboriginal paintings being produced within the last 40 years ago. I was brought up in Australia and spent some of my childhood in the South Australian Desert area in Woomera. As a 12-14 year old, I wandered in to the desert which was very flat, lilac grey with some areas that were either a yellow ochre or a red ochre, against the blue sky the landscape was fantastic. In creek beds, there were caves where the indigenous aborigines had taken shelter and left marks, circles, animal drawings on the walls and small piles of flint where they had been working arrow heads or whatever. The whole symbolism of the desert has left their mark on me. |