GETTING stranded in a Pilbara campsite for three days was the unlikely inspiration for Anita Phillips’ new exhibition Clouds for Mountains.
Phillips and a bunch of other landscape artists were en route to paint the Hamersely Range when torrential rain forced the closure of gravel and dirt roads leading into the mountain range.
Most of the artists were frustrated at being stranded at Cheela Plains station, about 120km west of Paraburdoo, but Phillips grabbed her paintbrushes and clambered up a nearby hill in the rain.
“I have always loved weather and clouds—I grew up on a Wheatbelt farm and skies and rain were everything,” she says.
“So I was quite happy; the clouds and weather formations were amazing. I painted and drew and photographed for about three days before we could leave camp again.
• Some of the atmospheric paintings in Clouds for Mountains by Anita Phillips.
“I knew then and there that this was the genesis of an exhibition. I had always dreamed of putting paintings of clouds into the PS Art Space.”
Clouds for Mountains features about 30 paintings that vary dramatically in size from 10cmx10cm to a massive 6m panorama.
“The finished paintings are done in oil and also in something called cold wax which you mix with the paint—it’s a mix of solvent and beeswax and is very textural. Great for the Pilbara,” Phillips says.
“The original drawings that I did up on the hill overlooking the station and camp are displayed. These were actually done in the rain—you can see the water marks.”
Phillips says she has an emotional connection to the Pilbara.
“It’s incredibly special to me as I was posted there as a very young teacher in 1990, my two daughters were born there and I stayed for eight years in total,” she says.
“It has been great to return as an artist and spend time painting this incredibly old landscape. I probably have spent the last 4-5 years quite focused on the Pilbara”
Phillips likes to paint places that are remote and wild including Nanorup near Albany and the Southern Ocean.
She recently spent time with others artists at the Waychinicup National Park, painting landscapes for an upcoming exhibition at the Nyszitor Gallery in Fremantle.
“In the future I would really like to do a series of salt lakes in the Wheatbelt, going back to my origins,” she says.
“I have also done artist residencies in Tasmania, the Shetland Islands, the west coast of Cornwall.
“I went to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco last year. I am very drawn to harsh, isolated and ‘alone’ environments I think.”
But right now, Phillips is busy getting ready for her latest exhibition.
“I think you have to be gentle with clouds; they are ethereal in nature,” she says.
“They are probably my favourite thing to paint. I always start with sky…”
Clouds for Mountains is at PS Art Space, Pakenham Street in Fremantle from May 1-10. For more info see psas.com.au and anitaphillips.com.au
by STEPHEN POLLOCK