WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY

Most of these people are complete strangers who I convinced to let me absorb into their homes, most with a text message asking, “may I paint you?” And as it turns out, few people say no to being a muse.

I didn’t always explain right away that I wouldn’t be painting them, but rather their stuff. The seemingly insignificant corners of mess that you’re so unaware you keep. They say a lot about your beliefs, your personality, and your rituals. I call them Indirect Portraits.

There’s no strict criteria as to who I ask to be my subjects, they just have to be… interesting…

YOUR INSTRUCTIONS

Your task, if you so choose, is to scroll through the list of people below, read their story, and try match the painting yourself. Some have obvious clues, some not so much.

Either way, I hope you think, I hope you question, and I hope you gain just a little bit of insight about yourself while you ponder the odd things you keep on your benchtop, around your living room, and in your bathroom cabinet.
To find the answers, scroll to the bottom.

All The Worlds A Stage

Fountain of Youth

Man And His Symbols

By Any Other Name

Servant of the Earth

No Smoking

Tough Guy Book Club

Peace at Last

He wore yellow-tinted glasses and a shirt generously unbuttoned and decorated with mushrooms. Over a beer at the local pub, he retold his encounter with a psychic when he was younger. In the middle of their session, slightly confused, the psychic confessed, “Ray, all I’m seeing is dollar signs and fractals.”
I don’t think I would ever associate her with a water dragon, but it seems to be one of the things Sue is known for. As it turns out, they’re a symbol of peace and unity where only war was before, and carriers of mother earth’s secrets. As an artist herself, Sue understands that the art maker brings forth clues and insights before we’re quite ready to understand them ourselves.
On a day wandering through Uki, I popped into the Post Office to ask Gary when a good time would be to check out his home. While still frothing milk on the coffee machine he said, “you can go in now!” And nodded to the back door. Just like that, Gary let me wander through his home without hesitation. It seems to me that Gary has built a life in a picturesque town, and with open arms, nourished a community with coffee and art.
I noted the barrister’s wig on top of his chest of drawers and wondered if the skills gained during his previous life as an actor had helped his career as a lawyer. Nevertheless, nowadays having settled down in Uki from Sydney, his real preference is the patient art of brewing alcohol.
More than the woman who stops water trucks in the dead of the night, she’s a maker, an artist, a mother, and a daughter to Mother Earth. What really made me smile about Michele was the way she spoke about her children, and the way her children probably can’t quite yet appreciate just how much they teach her.
Living in a picturesque cabin amongst the rainforest, Michael seems to have found his haven in Uki. A talented painter, he mentioned that it’s no painter’s desire to do portraits of your friends and accidentally offend them. Instead, he keeps company with himself, his plants, and the many self-portraits that stare back.
When asked to show her favourite item, Ita pulled out a vintage purple hat and drew my attention to the delicate hand-made flowers that she wears in her hair.
Sitting at the dining table I asked Ida if she knew why everyone in Uki spoke so highly of her, and why they called her the Matriarch. She quietly smiled and said, “I don’t know.” Ida says little but knows a lot. When I asked her what her relationship to the mountain was she just said, “the mountain isn’t part of me, I am part of the mountain.”
On the surface, a very soft-spoken Englishman, although surprising to find out that he used to write Sex and Love articles for women’s magazines.