Recently I was standing on a high sandstone shelf in the Blue Mountains near home, painting the cliffs (Morning Sun Creeping In). After finishing the sketch, I sat for a while. I contemplated my unique lifestyle. I’m in my seventy seventh year and lucky enough to still be able to paint outdoors, where I find the real alchemy. It has been my way of working since I began this full-time career in 1978. The basis of all my landscaping endeavours is capturing the light and simultaneously expressing my feelings for that landscape. Since the early-seventies my mentors and heroes were outdoor painters. That placed me on a path that I’m so happy to say has rarely led me astray. It continuously presents new goals and challenges.
There are wonderful landscape painters working from the studio using photography, imagination, memory, etc. All with many and varied goals. With Computers, internet and cameras, imagery is limitless and at our fingertips. AI is sweeping into our lives at a great rate. All this is exciting for the creative imagination and will no doubt change the tastes and perceptions of some. I though, find challenges and worthy goals in the real world, working from life. I develop my larger paintings in the studio directly from my outdoor work.
When I paint my pictures, capturing the image is one thing, but generally I’m trying to express what I feel about it as much as what it looks like. For me that means immersing myself in the sounds, smells, breeze/stillness and temperatures, and yes I can almost taste some delicious colours, so all of my senses are participating. There is no way that I can do that in the studio, looking at a cold flat photo or screen.
There is a particular excitement and anticipation on a long drive to both new and old ‘hunting grounds’. I love that first glimpse when rounding a bend or cresting a hill. Then, by way of example, to see a picture right at my camp that I’ve been looking at for days but not ‘seeing’ it, reaffirms in my mind that it’s not the objects that makes the picture, it’s the emotional or sensory connection, and that is what still inspires me to paint.
-Warwick Fuller
● Sold
● Reserved
If you are interested in any of the reserved paintings, it is worth contacting the gallery as they may become available.
