Image: Painting "Singing a Different Tune" by Roslyn Mary
This interview was conducted over email and is presented in an informal style to preserve the authentic tone of the conversation.
You started painting later in life, is that right? What inspired or encouraged you to pick up a brush and start painting?
Actually, it began a lot earlier at my mother’s knee! Un be-known to me.
It began in a house. My first. A house of sensitivity to observe, of garden, of flowers, of painting, of beauty. The first two years of my life my post war family lived at Wingello, my Great Grandmother’s home in Orange NSW. Australia!
My Great Aunt Isobel had her florist room at the back. I can remember being fascinated by the heavy scissors and secateurs on the bench and the spools of ribbons on the wall beside the door. Silks. Moire taffeta. Wired. Spilling down. And outside the door in the parterre under the two big Elms were Buttercups, iridescent yellow. My first colour memory. It is only lately that I have pondered the significance of this beginning. Observation. Beauty. Sensitivities. Flowers. Creating. They were all there. In a house.
“What you live with you become” I am now in my 79th year, and from that beginning to now I have always had a pencil or brush or pen or keyboard in my hand, drawing, writing, painting. Making a something that wasn’t there before.
But in 2019 just before Covid visited us, these threads coalesced into ‘serious painting!’. My generous family at Christmas gifted me with a term’s art classes in Sydney. I travelled down to Sydney from my Blue Mountain’s home each Tuesday night to my class. I almost gave up, but my classmates corralled me and encouraged me to ‘Go home & paint!'. I had thought that the classes alone would deliver. Little did I know that it’s in the doing that you paint!!! That weekend I set up on the kitchen table… and have not stopped!!!
When you sit down to paint, do you tend to have a clear plan in mind for the day, or is it more about going with the flow and seeing where the process takes you?
A germ. I think I have a germ of an idea. A picture in my mind. A Waratah. In a bottle. Scraps of Daisies in a jar. Maybe a background colour. I don’t agonise about what I’ll paint. It’s more, this is what I want to paint. There’s no agony!!!
Standing at the easel, I just make a start. Set up a canvas. Stretched. Or taped to the board on the easel. I might visualise a colour. Or I might visualise the form in the space. Then I begin, with some boundary dots or lines in charcoal. Maybe the loosest of sketches, in charcoal, I love charcoal, it is so responsive. It feels like an extension of my fingers.
Rarely do I do detailed practice preliminary sketches. I don’t feel I have that sort of time! I just want to paint. To feel the joy of the brush in my hand and the thrill of the paint spreading and something happening before me.
Some may see this process as a kind of sacrilege. I know. But I am driven by a different rhythm. A different drumbeat. The Masterpiece is not my ambition. The Art Prize is not my desire. It really is much more secret, more personal than that. It’s to paint something I love. That I know. That I feel connected to. Somehow in the mystery of life to do this thing each day. Honouring the threads of my life. That will not satisfy some. Many, perhaps. But it satisfies me. More than satisfies!!!!
Your daisy paintings have such a joyful light energy, they’re a real favourite of mine. What draws you to paint them and what do they represent for you?
Daisies. Fresh as…. I am drawn to many flowers, probably most. All flowers speak, I think. Without words their essence speaks as can ours. I sense an unpretentious innocence about Daisies. They are light, especially the tiny Marguerites I have in my garden. Feathery foliage, small flowers and even tinier buds. All so perfect in form. Pristine white in colour. They don’t shout. They are sort of the understudy to the leading ladies. Not show-offs like the Hydrangeas across the garden. Or elegant like the Lovelight Camellias in the hedge below.
They touch you in their decided difference. I love to paint them, they allow you to step back and breathe again. They have a quiet stilling presence, they don't demand scale or complexity, or energy..."just be here with me". Like a close friend. Yes, I do like to paint them.
Are there particular subjects, themes that you find yourself drawn to painting again and again? What is it about them that keeps pulling you back?
Yes. There are. Obviously, it’s flowers. Sometimes I go off piste into interiors, a few landscapes. The odd dog! But I return to the flowers. With a sometimes audible sigh of relief! Why is that? It has to be a deep deep resonance. A connection. With my Mother, my roots. I sense that very strongly. The garden and my Mother.
I am not drawn to Gerberas. I couldn’t even spell it!!! But rather to Camellias, Roses, Iris, Freesias, Winter roses, Japanese Anemones, Magnolia. All introduced from somewhere else into the Australian landscape. And in the gardens of my childhood that’s what you found!
It has only been lately that indigenous Australian flowers have crept into my generation’s psyche. The young were quicker to discover. Wattle. Waratah. Banksia. Bottlebrush. Flannel Flower. The Gum. And now I love painting them. Their ‘otherness’ is intriguing!!
It’s almost as if they are laughing at the known world saying, “See how I shock you!” They are structural. Quirky. Survivors. And, as Australians, part of who we are. I find myself saying quite often, that the Gum is in an Australian’s DNA! I just love painting it!!! It’s imperfections. It’s haphazard form, languid leaves. The resilience it brings to our world. The shelter it offers. And then it’s blossoms…so finely fragile and a complete surprise in the grey greens. I feel all of this when I paint them. My go to brush for the twigs looks like a part of the tree!! An old weather beaten chewed up brush, wonky shape and almost hairless!! It knows who it is painting.
So, it’s the flowers, the foliage, the feeling and the mix. That’s what pulls me back, over and over again.
What is your philosophy on life? And do you feel this come through in your artwork?
This is the big one!! Squeezed here inconspicuously in the middle!! And I have never been asked that question before!! That is quite telling….to have never been asked what is the warp and weft of a person’s life.
'We are not here for nothing!'...I say that a lot. I deeply sense we have come from love, live enmeshed in that love and one day will return. This gift, this life. Such an adventure. In being, in sharing, discovering, learning and much unlearning. Joying, suffering., transforming, loving.
I think love is the main game. Love began it, sustains it, models it and gently demands it. I feel deeply that I am in the midst of all of that. I see it all through this longish life - the presence of love. Painting I know is but one expression of that love to me. One of the many loving surprises in my life. I never expected it, it came on wings almost! To bring me joy, and rich and generous connections. And a tailor made expression. All in the guise of canvas, brush and paint. Everything is gift. A love gift, even 'hard darks'. Everything a gift from the loving giver.
Has starting your art later in life given you a different perspective on life?
I think it does. Significantly different perspectives …on painting. And most other things too!
I don't see painting as my entire life's work. Although I do ‘work hard’ at it!!! It’s icing on a big and luscious cake for me...it's not a make or break thing. It's a gift.
When you arrive at your 79th year you know you have already lived many more years than you will. These years are perhaps not as wonderfully energetic or perhaps single mindedly driven or even as ambitious as earlier ones.
I don’t need to win prizes or paint masterpieces or need to have my name in lights. (Although if my Daisies ever hung on the walls of the Art Gallery of NSW my heart would be singing!!).
It is the process that enthrals and the casual and surprising connections than enliven and bring special meaning. I love when someone knocks on my door, to look at my work, to perhaps choose a little painting to be part of their life story, and/or to chat about life and how we might live more courageously and lovingly - over a cup of tea. As good as it gets on a chilly mountain’s afternoon.
This painting adventure is living proof that blessing doesn’t stop knocking on our door. Whatever our age!! We just need to invite her in!!
I know from the amazing scenic pictures you have shared of the area around where you live in the mountains…do you think your environment influences your work?
I do. I think environment affects all of us. We are creatures of the Earth and are woven into it, relationally, emotionally, politically, creatively and spiritually. The First Nations People of Australia, and most indigenous Peoples worldwide, know this. Not primarily intellectually, but holistically. It’s in their DNA. We have much to unlearn, and know from these ancient Peoples.
The Blue Mountains of NSW are beautiful. Vast, mysterious. Sandstone escarpment and cliffs. Ferned valleys and running water. Largely untouched by modern interventions. There are about a dozen villages along the ridges, stretching from the Sydney Basin in the east to the west. We live in one of these villages in the Upper Mountains, the highest points. Historically cold climate. Cool summers and cooler winters. And, so there are masses of cool climate plants. Old introduced and native trees. Big gardens. All on the edges of the National Park. Vast Native Bush. A very significant place for Aboriginal People. And that says it all.
Beauty and mystery are fertile springs for creativity, I think. Beauty draws us. We may not understand how. We probably don’t need to! It just does. I live among a ‘symphony of green’. Green speaks to me.
Would I have begun ‘painting seriously’ anywhere else? I don’t know the answer to that. But I do know that when I go outside, the air I breathe is fresh, often crisp and the trees make me stop and thank them for being my companions on the way.
What advice would you give to someone who’s hesitant to start something creative later in life?
START!! Don’t overthink! Don’t even think!! There will always be barriers to everything worthwhile. I’m too old, too tired, too sick, too busy. too incapable! We do worthwhile things because they are in us to do. We don’t do them to win, to conquer to impress, to even be good at it, the best. We do them because they are in us to do!
Grab an encouraging teacher. And, maybe a group of people who, like you, want to go on that ride. And, if that is out of reach… grab some lovely paper and a soft pencil, or some paints and friendly brushes and set up on your kitchen table and see what happens.
Just see what happens. Make the marks and splash on the paint and let your mind have a rest for a while and be the kindergartner who is in love with this primal pleasure. I wish you joy!
I imagine your studio days can get pretty busy, when you’re in the middle of creating, is there a favourite quick recipe or comfort food you rely on to keep you?
It’s quite un busy in the studio. Silent. Downstairs in a smallish room. Just me and the paints. A spacious time actually. I take a cup of tea with me. That’s all. I mostly paint in the morning.
I paint a work in its entirety in one session, giving myself and the moment to it. Can’t do bits of one and bits of another. Too fragmenting for me. One day, one painting. Then lunch. Often late ish!
What has it been like sharing your work through art shows? Is there one that felt like a turning point, or holds special memories for you?
My Instagram showcases my work @roslyn_mary. I value those who follow along, some have for many years now.
One of my sons set up my website www.roslynmary.com and manages that daily or weekly depending on his life. Such generosity. Both of these platforms showcase my work, smooth as silk!
Very early on a Regional Gallery in Inverell NSW contacted me to show my work in their annual Contemporary Art Show. I was stunned but sent the stipulated number of works. All were chosen by Gallery goers.
Other galleries have represented my work since, regularly and at Metropolitan Art Fairs in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
In September I am having a solo exhibition here in Leura in a beautiful National Trust property. Excited to say the least! To have people I love and value under one roof for an exhibition of my work is pretty special, people who have walked with me, so supportively, in this rich chapter of my life.
I have lately launched into hosting painting workshops here in my beautiful village. These are times of nurture in an iconic mountains setting, among curious and trusting humans, sharing in my eldest daughters wonderful food...and the paints!
Dear Reader, it has been good to put things into words. They can clarify, amplify or set your thinking straight. I hope in some way some of my words (more than I bargained for) might add courage to your own honourable path.
You can find Roslyn's work on her website www.roslynmary.com
