The highlight of the year was my inclusion in a group show at a minor public gallery. ‘Don’t Say I Never Warned You When Your Train Gets Lost’ was curated by Dr Michael Vale of Monash University (& former colleague in commercial art). There is an online walk-thru HERE. The show had been held over from 2021 due to Covid lockdowns (after being held over from 2020 due to Covid lockdowns), so come April it was a relief to finally deliver four previously unexhibited paintings to the Kingston Arts gallery in Moorabbin. Public reception was muted, even for the opening with eight artists participating, but I was very grateful for several fellow artists and relatives making the trek down to the south eastern suburbs at some point, purely on my account.

With the gallery scene back in full swing, I managed five reviews for Melbourne Art Seen. My favourite is Brett Colquhoun’s show, ‘Transpires’ at Sutton Gallery. Although the reviews are ostensibly only promoted on Facebook, the stats for Melbourne Art Seen far exceed mere FB ‘likes’ and lead me to suppose others see my (public) FB page without acknowledging or learn of it by other means. It is flattering, but I don’t pretend my judgements are always welcome or agreed with, and suspect antagonism may be directed toward me along other avenues in the art world.

I managed another set of twenty paintings (SAMPLER-05) at a rather plodding pace and another story THE OUTSIDE WORLD, again with a small but heartening response in downloads. There was also two new series of digital works, SCAVENGING and CABLE CULT, part of a deliberate slowing down of output following seven years of over-production following a twelve year hiatus. The ideas are still there, but I don’t quite feel the urgency to realise them so promptly, don’t feel quite so anxious about my software abilities.

Finally, the year will also be remembered by me for the passing of my great artistic hero, Jean-Luc Godard (1930-2022). I have previously devoted a series – GOOD-LUC GODARD – to the giant of movie making. He was a flawed person perhaps and actually led quite a sad life for long stretches but somehow compensated with many superb works across a long and prolific career. In my seventieth year, with creeping physical decline, mortality begins to weigh a little heavier….

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