COLIN PENNOCK TRACKER
COLIN PENNOCK TRACKER
2ND LAND GRAB II
oil on canvas 122 x 122 cm 2
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TIME TO MAKE CAMP TWENTY MINUTES INTO THE BUSH
oil on Belgian linen 60 x 60 cm each 4
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FOUR HOURS AHEAD
oil on Belgian linen 122 x 107 cm 6
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BUTCHER BIRD’S LOOKOUT
oil and mica on Belgian linen 183 x 183 cm 8
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THE GLORY HOLE
oil and mica on Belgian linen 122 x 153 cm 10
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APPROACHING SACRED GROUND
oil on Belgian linen 183 x 183 cm 12
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HAROLD’S FIFTY HECTARES
oil on Belgian linen 153 x 122 cm 14
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RIVER MOUTH WALK THE HORSES FROM HERE
oil on Belgian linen 60 x 60 cm I oil and mica on Belgian linen 60 x 60 cm 16
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BUSH CAUSEWAY
oil on Belgian linen 122 x 107 cm 18
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TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO
oil on Belgian linen 183 x 183 cm 20
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A GOOD PLACE TO SWIM
oil on Belgian linen 153 x 122 cm 22
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TECTONIC CRUST
oil on canvas 183 x 183 cm 24
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CONVICT ROAD BREAKING FROM TRADITION
oil on Belgian linen 60 x 60 cm each 26
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PERTH TO SYDNEY 1965
oil and mica on Belgian linen 183 x 183 cm 28
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HIGH TIDE MARK
oil on Belgian linen 122 x 107 cm 30
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NOT LONG NOW
oil on Belgian linen 122 x153 cm 32
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THE DAY THE DEED RAN OUT FOR THE PROMISE OF A HOME COOKED MEAL
oil on Belgian linen 60 x 60 cm each 34
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PAST THE GRAVEL ROAD
oil and mica on Belgian linen 107 x 122 cm 36
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COLIN PENNOCK TRACKER
It is not hard to feel ‘lost’ – and then ‘found’ – in the sumptuous layering that abound in Colin Pennock’s paintings. That strange sense of nervousness one encounters when travelling, and yet that desire to wrap one’s self in the moment, that sense of certainty that there is indeed a way through, a way home. In many ways Pennock’s paintings exude a sense of self, an almost biographical exegesis. Simultaneously they reflect experiences that, to varying degrees, are universal. Universal, that is, if one has taken the odd risk, has felt fear, disorientation, awe and love, if one has felt the need for a map – whether geographical or emotional. Indeed there is a reason Pennock has opted to calling this series ‘Tracker’ – a clear allusion to the artist himself – for these eddies and swirls of colour are maps, a topography of experience, a diagrammatic narrative of a long journey to home, to security; the need to both escape and to return. Pennock knows this terrain all too well. It started in the muddy bogs of Northern Island when Pennock, along with his mates, enlisted in the police force at the grand age of 17. He came from a part of Ireland where there were few other options and rapidly found himself embroiled in what in essence was a civil war and where he experienced “enough horror” to last for several lifetimes. He was often the ‘Field Man’ – the one sent out to spy for detonator wires and to draw out snipers, trudging alone through the muddy peat bogs up to his ankles in mud. When he could he would sit beneath mist-shrouded street lamps sketching what he had seen, drawings which, as fate would have it, ended up hanging in the renowned Culture and Conflict exhibition in Soho, New York in 1998. Indeed, those early sketches in atmospheric light that he did whilst on patrol, were the reason he was given a four year scholarship to St Martins School of Art in London from 1985 to 1989. By the age of 21 Pennock left the police force and left Ireland, beginning a period of nomadic existence and exhibiting in a number of group shows in London. He resettled in New York in 1996, leaving just post-9/11, an event which contributed to a period of deep questioning and led him to move away from drawing to abstraction and, in the process, increasingly losing the structure of the early graphite works which were symbolic of buildings and human life. 38
Pennock’s nomadism continued, leading him to Australia and the Hawkesbury region and eventually the peaceful environs of the Hinterland of Noosa. The Hinterland is a world of tropical rainforest and abundant flora and fauna. One can see the abundant colours of the blazing birdlife creeping into Pennock’s palette. But one can also still see traces of scarlet, hints of physical tension and human physicality. These contradictions are inherent in Pennock’s oeuvre, for they reflect the contradictions in life itself; joy, bliss and despair remain wary bedfellows on these canvases. “The energy which is contained within in each mark is almost about frustration and containment as well as fulfillment, so it all lives in the same place,” Pennock has said about his own work. “Things of harmony and things of disconnect. Peace and mayhem living in the same landscape.” For Pennock the depth-of-field of his works are suggestive of both time and experience. “The traditional way at looking at landscape is foreground, middle ground and back ground,” he says. “My response to landscape is an emotional one. And the marks and colours that I make in my work are from past and present experiences.” Tracker is full of suggestions of pathways through the planes of a landscape, symbolic of presence and disruption. The harmony and balance of Pennock’s palette suggests the existence of polar emotions and experiences and the balancing of these elements controls the mood of these paintings towards optimism and beauty. Even the titles of these works hint at such contradictions. The very title Walk The Horses From Here is suggestive of rough terrain and exhaustion at the same time as arrival and respite. River Mouth in a settled country suggests civilisation; one knows that to follow the river downstream will lead eventually to settlement. These are works of monumentally clashing colours and emotions, applied with exuberance and adrenalin; they are a journey through a maelstrom of experience, colour and expression. - Ashley Crawford 39
SCOTT LIVESEY GALLERIES 909A High Street Armadale VIC 3143 Phone: +61 3 9824 7770 www.scottliveseygalleries.com
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Katrina Pennock Gregory Ladner Mark Grenville Joan Elms Felicity Costigan Jon Linkins Ashley Crawford Rod Eastgate Craig Barrett Ross Hall Mark Chapman Paul Oxlade
Catalogue compiled by: Scott Livesey & Sophie Foley ISBN 978-0-9806402-7-4
Š Copyright 2013