Tasmania’s wild places help artist see the light

Artist Bruce Thurrowgood has always had an affinity with water. He made the seaside town of Bicheno his home in 2014 after living outside Geelong in Victoria and enduring the heat and long periods of drought.

“I was a regular visitor to family in Tasmania,” Thurrowgood says.

“The move to Bicheno came after a visit in 2010 when I encountered the light, clarity and colours of the water at Redbill Beach, then I found land to build a studio home close to the beach.

“The experience of the ocean and the shallows is integral to my painting practice as it allows me to respond to light and movement.

“The clear air of Tasmania provides a clarity of light and saturation of colour.”

From his early childhood, Thurrowgood loved drawing and always wanted to be a painter.

He grew up on a family dairy farm near Camperdown before the family moved to Geelong and he decided to go to art school.

He’s been a painter since the early 1970s embracing, minimalism and then landscapes with water as a theme.

“Before art school I was influenced by an elder family friend who attended the Slade (School of Fine Art) in London in her youth with (sculptor) Henry Moore,” he says. “I have always drawn and painted.

“I was a surfer in the days when we shaped our own boards and had no leg ropes or wetsuits.

“Being part of the early surfing culture at Torquay, I developed a fascination with the play of light on water, and this continues to influence my painting.

“Water began to creep into the landscape more and more until water quite specifically became the landscape.”

Thurrowgood spends between eight and 15 weeks on one painting.

“Every stroke to me is an important one,” he explains.

“The process of painting is really important to me, sitting and painting and concentrating on the detail.

“I like coming into the studio and just disappear in the process of being involved in what I’m doing.”

While the pandemic has caused havoc for many, for Thurrowgood, it has been the chance to do what he loves.

“The Covid time has been difficult with isolation from family but has lent me an opportunity to focus on that which I could do,” he says.

“I have been able to concentrate on and enjoy painting.”

In the silence, a collection of his works, is on show at Handmark Gallery until December 5.

“The work in the exhibition progresses from the observation of moving water to more contemplative pieces,” he says.

“Each of them represents an interaction with light, using colour and tone, and it is over to the viewer now for their individual response.”

Bruce Thurrowgood’s show, In the silence, is on display at Handmark, until December 5.