Girt / David Welch | David Welch

  • David Welch, Breaking Wave Bondi, Triptych
  • David Welch, Tacking off Middle Head
  • David Welch, Catch of the Day
  • David Welch, Tacking on Sydney Harbour
  • David Welch, Change in the Weather, Gerringong
  • David Welch, The Angel of Waverley Cemetary
  • David Welch, Chinwag at Byron
  • David Welch, Through the Heads
  • David Welch, Clifftops From Coogee
  • David Welch, To the Sea, Tuross Heads
  • David Welch, Cloudburst, Sydney Harbour
  • David Welch, Werri Beach
  • David Welch, First Light, Camp Cove
  • David Welch, Coogee Beach by Moonlight
  • David Welch, Handstand
  • David Welch, Dawn, Camp Cove
  • David Welch, Lagoon, Tuross Heads
  • David Welch, Narcissus
  • David Welch, Ocean Street, After Rain
  • David Welch, Old Bather
  • David Welch, Remembering Rain
  • David Welch, Advance Australia Fair
  • David Welch, South Coast Sunset
  • David Welch, Man on the Edge
  • David Welch, Summer at Camp Cove
  • David Welch, A Woman's Best Friend
  • David Welch, Sydney Harbour in Ultra Marine

Girt / David Welch
12 - 30 August 2010

 

Girt

As the comedian Billy Connolly once demanded of the Australian national anthem. ‘Girt? What’s a girt?’ Girt by sea of course. Returning to Australia after living in Paris for many years the first thing that struck me was the pungency and tang of the salt sea air. We Australians for the most part inhabit the green belts of this country and never stray too far from our shores. I’ve often reflected that in the early days of the colony we were transported here against our will, gazed out to sea and dreamt of returning home. Now, over two hundred years later, here we are, and we know that this is our home. Our population enriched by those who recognised the beauty of these shores and came here seeking the opportunity of a better life.  This exhibition then is my take on a vast subject, our relationship to the sea. We are bound to it physically and spiritually.  I would argue that it is an integral part of our identity as Australians. Gazing out to sea is a hypnotic experience, in doing so we enter into a communion with an element that binds us to our sense of who we are . Our earliest memories are full of this landscape, a day out at the beach or harbour, a birthright, a playground free to all,  to offer ones body to the sun and sea, the kind of ritual few can resist.

Not always benevolent, the sea can be destructive and capricious, a force to be reckoned with and a powerful mirror of our mood and psyche. Can there be a sadder or more introverted place than a beach on a blustery, rain swept winters day? Yet, even at such times there are consolations to be found in the poetry of the changing of the seasons, most keenly felt at the seaside. Storms pass and are replaced by the promise of an eternal summer. Our place in the sun.

David Welch, August, 2010