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Tim's Lane Cove Reflections
October 01, 2017
Our first encounter and observation of the Eucalyptus for this work. Bails book fresh in may head i search for these classifications, only picking out the common ones. And starting to find small differences in the bark, the shape of the trees, the silhouettes and the shape of the bush as a large abstract pattern. Crackly, brittle, sharp edges, curving branches like elongated limbs. Its not a forrest where you can walk through undetected, each step and snap of a fallen twig. It does have around to it. The overlapping bark turned into a collage with hand made paper drawing, the squiggly patterns into a drawing of a type of script. The squiggly bark into a watercolour like a river system mirroring the meandering traces in the tree face. So much to work with. A bit overwhelming.
Starting to see Damian’s music notes, short-hand like marks, which resemble small cuts in the tress and which capture in an abstract way the overall rhythm.
Visiting Trees... For Real
August 14, 2017
Enough talking... In Early August 2017, Tim and I decided it was time to leave the usual haunt of the modern day artist, the coffee shop, and venture out into the bush to visit some actual Eucalyptus trees. Luckily Sydney has large tracts of National Park sitting like lungs in the middle of the suburban anatomy. And so a visit to Lane Cove National Park was planned. There are some great trees in the the Lane Cove National Park. An early image with a. female form made it into the final book.
Melody Tree
October 23, 2017
This Lemon-Scented Gum was photographed just at the time when it was shedding bark. I was very struck by the squarish shapes and soon after, while driving home, was hearing a kind of angular, lilting melody for violin. This eventually became the main theme for the concert work.
First Melody Sketch
October 16, 2017
After first photographing the Lemon-scent Gum bark I began hearing some angular melodies. I captured these in my notebook in graphic shapes. You can see here the shape of what eventually became the central motivic element of the concert work. The noted melody can be seen in the gallery here on the right.