What the heck! It’s starting to get colder. Does one go on this Autumn adventure at a bush camp in the Tarkine/Takayna wilderness in North Western Tasmania or not?

Of course they go!

The adventure – Art for Takayna (A4T) with the Bob Brown Foundation – is a four night trip into this mostly unspoiled wilderness area. It begins with a night in Waratah, then we move to bush camps.

The aim – produce art for a fundraising exhibition in June. With ninety artists of various ilks participating, the exhibition will have plenty to offer.

Preparation is paramount. How to fit art materials, sleeping arrangements, water, clothes etc in the car? My comfortable “sleeping arrangement” is a mattress in the car. So the rest has to fit in around that. The possibility of uncooperative weather means almost everything needs to have a spot inside with me. Cosy! Meals are catered, so that’s great!

Here’s my art plan (as submitted in my registration):

My idea will be to capture the atmosphere and mood of the area, as well as examining interesting details up close. I will be painting small en plein air oil paintings and perhaps collecting information to use later for more abstracted works. I envisage my work being able to convey the feeling of the atmosphere I experienced in Takayna. As well as the beauty of both the larger view and the more detailed, up-close intimate details.

This is how I’m expecting it to look, though this is a different place. There should be some nice big trees. Not sure about tracks.

The weather can be changeable and frustrating at this location. A certain “attitude” is required!

As usual, the art gear pile is as large as, if not larger than the clothing and other essentials pile.

The pile includes: oil painting gear — including a range of panel sizes and the wet painting box. Plus my sketch bag, the acrylic “slap-it-about” stuff (used for making mood/feeling/atmosphere marks) and, the all important stool.

The adventure will unfold so stay tuned folks …..