Fountain of Life Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm
My last post was called 'Below The Surface' and this new post will be linked, but tangentially so. Regular readers will be used to my tangents!
BACKGROUND
Regular readers will also know of my interest in water. I grew up on a grain farm on the rich black treeless plains outside Dalby, on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. As an adult I spent eighteen years living further west in a small rural community called Goondiwindi. For much of my life water, its uses, cost, manipulations and 'value' has been part of my life. Goondiwindi was the commercial and social hub for a diversified agricultural community...cotton, sheep, cattle, grain, pigs, some fruit and vegetables. Irrigation made much of the farming activity viable, and above and below ground water supplies watered livestock.
This link HERE will take you to a Google image of my childhood landscape. The red colour in the fields is sorghum [obviously a very good season!]. It is truly beautiful! Imagine fields of sunflowers or wheat. The treeles flat plain is like an ever changing canvas.
WATER
Issues surrounding water are of paramount importance across the globe. In Australia water and its uses, allocations, price etc seem to be constantly discussed. Currently the ongoing debate about the Murray Darling catchment area, and agricultural use vs environmental impacts, has heated up. Also, heating up are concerns about above and below ground water and the impacts of coal seam gas mining on them.
So, for any new readers, the above paragraphs provide some background for the inspiration behind my paintings. My interest in water is part of a larger concern for the planet. I've listed more water paintings and posts below.
FOUNTAIN OF LIFE
In this new painting above, I wanted to capture a feeling of water rippling below the surface. Yes, there's that term below the surface from my last post. The female figure is Mother Nature. With the trees-of-life erupting from her feet and heart, she is the source of life on Earth and the Multiverse. She seems to swim in an ambigous 'landscape'. Is it an earthly landscape or a cosmological one? For me it is both and all. Beneath the main tree-of-life, with its vascular-like embrace, faint lines and shapes are discernible. Are these the remnants, meminders of life's first pulse? Are they below the surface or do they beckon to the beyond? The blue symbolises water, itself a symbol of the subconscious where the impulse for life exists? So below the surface, as I wrote in my last post, is a loaded term...is the surface a literal or a metaphorical one?
As we scramble to plunder the earth's resources, do we take time to ponder those elements which breath life into her and thus keep us alive? We are 70% water...and so is Earth.
I am not against mining per se, but I am concerned about the rush to develop and expand, without rigourous research into potential impacts on the environment and food production.
Bolivia is taking some interesting steps to place nature's rights on par with human rights.
Eath's Wisdom Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm
Earth's Wisdom...need I say more?! 
23 February 2012 6-8 pm
Fireworks Gallery
Scott Emerson MP, Queensland State Member of Parliament for Indooroopilly and Shadow Minister for the Arts, will be launching FOR EVERYONE: Words and Piantings
Please check out FOR EVERYONE's own page here
I am now listed as an author at Goodreads
Kathryn
You can see more of my work at: www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com
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