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Mozart and Salieri – A Theatre Painting

Watercolour on paper During a recent stay in Auroville, I attended a performance of Pushkin's Mozart and Salieri. This painting depicts Salieri watching as Mozart encounters a blind street fiddler playing an aria from The Marriage of Figaro. What interested me was the relationship between the figures and the theatrical space - the lighting, shadows and atmosphere of the stage. As the painting developed, the figures became more prominent than I had initially imagined. Yet I wanted the surrounding space to remain equally alive, rather than becoming merely a backdrop. A painting of a theatrical performance about music - one art form interpreting another.

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Geikie Place, Fitzroy Crossing — The Road and the Evening Sky

I've recently returned to this scene in Fitzroy Crossing, in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The original painting was done on ordinary notepad paper, which made working in watercolour difficult and the result rather imprecise. This time I used Baohong watercolour paper and raised the horizon line, giving the road a stronger presence. But the sky remains an umbrella over the whole landscape. What interested me most was the colour — the warm ochres and oranges of the ground, the greens and blues of the trees, and the bands of evening cloud stretching across the sky. Watercolour on Baohong paper

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Bathers Beach, Fremantle — Between Sea and Sky

Looking from Bathers Beach towards the Indian Ocean and the South Mole breakwater. What first caught my attention was the relative calm of the sea, the waves continually slapping against the shore — and above everything, the great banks of cloud. The tiny lighthouse and ship sit almost lost in the distance. They give a sense of scale, but the painting is really about something larger: the meeting of sea and sky, water and air. I began this watercolour in January 2022, returned to it in August 2025, and made some final changes in October 2026. Watercolour

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