David Keeling: Walking on a Sunny Day
It fascinates me that we can be in a place we have been in countless times before, and then suddenly it is as if you see it for the first time.
– David Keeling
David Keeling looks for the dreamlike moments when a strong Tasmanian wind draws the clouds away from the sun, shining a spotlight on the wild terrain below. His focus lies in the interplay between light and shadow, and in these isolated moments that can happen on our island. “I have tried to interrogate that moment when the prosaic becomes the transcendent,” he shares. David’s exhibition is filled with arresting landscapes, portrayed mostly through oil on linen. They are literal depictions of place, subtly infused with memory.
David observes the lyrical lines of nature, but his representations are less gestural and found more in the intimate details. His choice of a small brush permits the viewer to take in the painting at a distance, yet he also invites us to observe finer brushstrokes up close. David creates immediacy through fleeting moments of foam-covered waves and foliage under shadow.
The largest painting in David’s exhibition shows a dissonant coast of Freycinet: the pale crimson sunset swirls with heat from a bushfire. Flames are concealed from the viewer; the smoke overwhelms the landscape. Thoughts of climate change are instilled in this moment David describes as “agonisingly beautiful but tinged with drama”. Weather-worn trees hold their place in the foreground, juxtaposed against the clouds of ash that signal their transience.
As David painted the large and smaller-scale works in this exhibition, he also considered existential concepts of mortality and an awareness for the fragility of life. His thoughts strengthen his art with a deeper sense of intensity and optimism in the world he portrays.
