Tuesday, 16 April 2013

earth matters



driving to Murray Bridge yesterday to pack up my exhibition 
took me along one of my favourite local roads
first there's a bit where the eastern escarpment of Mount Lofty Ranges drops away 
into what locals call "the flats"
where looking into the opaline heart of the continent brings to mind that line from Dorothea Mackellar's poem My Country 
impossible to photograph as the camera gives it a one-eyed squint 
that simply doesn't capture the grandeur
it's the kind of landscape that is best drawn or painted

so i can't really show you the big picture

on the other hand i can show details.



 driving along this road should take about 40 minutes
it can take me all day

later, heading back up into the ranges
i stopped for a closer look at a new cutting
and found
contemporary petroglyphs

23 comments:

  1. holy cow, india, these are stunning. the color is almost unbelievable.

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  2. looks like one of your cloths

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    Replies
    1. thank you Jude, now that IS a compliment!

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    2. Exactly my words - it looks like India's work :)

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  3. What beautiful colors! I agree with Jude. If you stood in from of that landscape in one of your textiles, it might be hard to find you!

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    1. that's the lovely thing about dyeing with bio-regional plant matter...you can disappear when you want to...

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  4. i love red earth ... reminds me of the southwest .

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  5. Core of my heart, my country... Such beautiful photos, India, perfect jewels of colour.

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  6. The color is unreal. Love the finger painting.

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    Replies
    1. those are actually gouges in the rock from earth moving machinery :0)

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  7. Lovely! Looks a bit like the Ochre Pits near Alice Springs....

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  8. Those details - I would get lost there with a big straw hat and a camera. The colors - so much like your cloths, no surprise there, but remarkable textures and tones.

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  9. wow...what amazing "land"scape..I love the textures!

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  10. my daughter (15) just said, I so DO want to go to Australie one day. I better look for a good job, so study hard ;-) After Schotland this summer I'll start to save, wouldn't that be the best travel for a mum and daughter both in love with fiber and art and nature!!!!!

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  11. So, if one is wearing flip-flops when they're out n'about in such soil, can one acquire red/pink toes???

    wowzer.

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    Replies
    1. absolutely. my white angora cat gradually turned pink over four years living in the desert outside Andamooka [in our "Far North"]...it took another four years of life back in the south before it all faded away [or, more likely, was gradually replaced by new white fur]

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  12. All I can say is that I'm envious of all that and wish I was there, but words can't express the thanks for always sharing such awesomeness.

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  13. before i read your words, i thought they were cloth; true beauty in land scapes and an artists eye/lens.

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    Replies
    1. the earth's beautiful skin...or flesh, depending on viewpoint

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