Goodbye cricket, goodbye summer

Well, Australia has won the World Cup (hurrah!) but that means that a very eventful and long 2014-15 cricket season has come to an end (sigh).

I know a lot people don't care for cricket. However for me it's the perfect game for summer - long languid spells with moments of action. I'm totally unfashionable as I really like test cricket. It's a bit like Shakespeare - it's long and you're not going to digest all of it, but nothing really compares.

As an artist I have found cricket to be a fascinating subject. The white uniforms take on purple and blue hues in the sun and the batsmen, bowlers, fielders and the umpires appear like actors on a green stage. The painting below shows a game being played on an oval in Adelaide's west parklands adjacent to the West Terrace cemetery.

This painting is titled 'The bowler returns to his mark' and will be part of the Good Sports exhibition that I will be presenting with Kate Bower at the Bapea Gallery in May 2015.

The last swim of summer

I sometimes wish I was one of those people who swim in the sea all year round. Gee, that's guts, isn't it? But I'm not an iceberg.

The end of March is the end of swimming season for me and that's all right. However, it's worth saying farewell to swimming and take a moment to reflect on how lucky I am to live so close to the sea. The water temperature yesterday morning was a bit nippy but it didn't take too long to adjust and enjoy it.

The painting below is based on a scene I saw during Adelaide's last really hot spell in early February. It was 35 degrees Celsius and I had gone for a swim at Glenelg. I saw this couple leaving the beach. Instantly I thought it could make a decent painting.

This painting will be part of the 'Good Sports' exhibition that I will be presenting with Kate Bower at the Bapea Art Gallery in May 2015.