Travelling and nostalgia.

I generally despise travelling and I have a strong tendency towards homesickness but an interesting discovery has been made about leaving the regular workspace that makes uncomfortable travel, less so. I am currently travelling in Fiji, the home of my parents and I’ve come to realise one thing, the paintings that I produce away from home emanate a strange and intriguing feeling, that cannot be replicated at home.

Perhaps it is the nostalgic and almost hazy feeling that my preferred travel medium, watercolours, gives off to the viewer. The transparent hues and loose brush strokes that produce a blurred, indistinct image, as if looking through a foggy lens, is made apparent when the piece is produced away from home. This delirious style to painting also hearkens to the lack of time and resources that one would otherwise have, as painting from a hotel room or on the plane is rarely comfortable. Additionally, the rush of sightseeing and bustling airports means that plein air paintings are a quick flurry of looser movements and ideas are expressed only in fast, dynamic sketches. Completed, tidy and heavily detailed pieces are a luxury that is afforded very little when abroad but those that I have completed seem to present an idyllic image of the travelling experience, with saturated colours and bold or distinctive colour palettes. Even the subjects themselves are reflective of the prime travel spots or notable moods of the destination itself, such as the terraces of Machu Picchu, the rugged Australian forests or the swaying tropical palms of Fiji.

The distance between the artist and the tools that are held so dearly, mean that painting while travelling strips the art form down to it’s bare minimum. I carried only three brushes, all of which could be stored in a pocket in my backpack and I was pleasantly surprised to find new uses for the basic tools at my disposal. With limited internet and only photos taken on my smartphone to use as reference, many of the aspects of painting in Fiji was drawn from memories and experiences, trying to replicate the gentle sway of sugar cane or the humid and balmy weather in the rural areas.

I’ve always associated Fiji with a simpler time where less is more and I feel that sentiment is apparent in the pieces produced while travelling there. The lush greenery and relatively small population is reflected in the absence of portraits or human figure in the paintings and the subjects are centred around traditionally scenic and aesthetic views like palm trees on the beach or hills shrouded in rain clouds. I think, that for all my animosity towards travelling, I can see the benefits of it as an artist as it allows for me to draw on internal sources of inspiration as opposed to the myriad of references one can find in the comfort of their own home.