Warwick Fuller - Dawn, Day and Dusk

At 29 years of age, in 1978, married with two infants and a mortgage, I was naive enough to think I could make a go of painting ‘full-time’. I quit a good job knowing that if I was going to paint better pictures I had to dedicate myself to it. Somehow we just survived the first three years and scraped through the next seven. When I think of my early work and of particular paintings where I made a discovery, or nailed a colour or mark, I got such a thrill. These little joys sustained me through many tough years. I burned two out of three paintings, remaining determined not to let my financial needs override my artistic goals and wouldn’ let anything out that I felt was a bad painting.

Advances came when I began considering the more philosophical aspects of what I wanted from my work. You can read ad infinitum of the landscape painter trying to ‘aint my feelings’ ‘capture the light’ ‘render the mood’ There is nothing particularly new or unique in this ideology. It is sad though, to see these expressions misused, abused and over-used to the point of becoming almost meaningless with insincerity. Those statements are though, I believe, some of the more important aims and ideals at the core of the genuine landscape painter’ psyche. I can paint something of what it looks like but I want to express through paint, how I feel! I want my pictures to sing the songs I sang when I painted them. My hope is that if I can paint with the joy of that moment, something of my emotional responses to that moment will shine through. I rely partly upon intuition to guide and help me reveal those intangible qualities that I prize above all others in my struggle to paint meaningful pictures.

Along my journey, I have been influenced by countless artists including great masters, little known painters, and terrible daubers. The greatest influences in my formative years though were fellow travelers such as Allan Fizzell who, with happy sarcasm and innuendo, deeply imprinted the elementary, structural and basic elements of tone, colour and composition into me. Kevin Oxley, disgusted with this brassy upstart, discussed with me things that I had never considered, and asked profound questions for which I had no answers. He taught me to look more deeply at what I wanted from my ‘art’ and to question why I painted. Though I grew up with a great love of nature, the real wellspring for my love of art was the revelation that an artist could show us new ways to experience and respond to nature. I have been painting full-time since 1978 and still can’ compare the controlled studio induced calmness to the thrill of painting outdoors with all my senses activated.

Warwick Fuller 2014