I love seeing and enjoying things that inspire me to create something new and lasting on my own. When I watch Kendrick Brothers’ movies, I usually feel motivated to write and grow and share what I’m learning.
While in Melbourne, I went to an Australian art gallery (The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia) twice during our six days in the city. I don’t usually go to places twice, but I ended up going to the national museum of screen culture (ACMI) twice, and I really enjoyed it both times. I saw things the second time that I hadn’t noticed the first time, and the things that I enjoyed the first time were embedded even deeper into my mind. So I decided to go back to the NGV Australia also, and I’m so glad I did.
While I was there, I felt inspired by the art and artists in three main ways.
1. The beauty of the art.
2. An artist who didn’t start painting until she was 81 years old and then created more than 3,000 paintings.
3. One artist who went on a painting trip around Australia with a friend.
First, I was inspired by the beauty of the art. The collection offered a lot of different styles. There was Aboriginal art by First Peoples of Australia, and there was art that mirrored European styles done by European settlers.
One of my favorite Aboriginal Art displays were the paintings done on Eucalyptus bark. I think it’s amazing that they could take that bark and make it possible to paint on it and then paint beautiful designs or meaningful messages on the art.
I also loved the landscape paintings. The Australian landscape is beautiful, and I love the impressions of the desert or one that I have that represents an Ancestral rainbow serpent. Some of the paintings of the landscape are more abstract, but I also love the ones that have the rolling hills and mountains and sunsets and forests.
One of my favorite painters in the museum is Eugene von Guerard who painted incredible landscapes with mountains and trees. Another of my favorite paintings was done by John Russell, a contemporary of Monet. The painting was of a brilliant blue and turquois sea with mountains on one side and grass and dirt in the foreground. I loved the vibrancy of the colors and how they blended together when I stood far away. When I stood closer, I could see the individual brush strokes, but from a bit further away, all the colors blended together. Other paintings showed Melbourne from different angles and from different time periods.
I took several photos of these paintings, and I wanted to share them with you here, but after checking the website of the museum, I found that although visitors could take pictures unless signs forbid it, I can’t post them on a personal website. Hopefully my descriptions will be enticing enough that you can go to the museum for yourself one day!
Second, Emily Kam Kngwarray inspired me because she showed me that artists don’t have to be limited by age. She didn’t start painting until she was 81 years old, but then she painted more than 3,000 paintings in only 8 years! Even though I didn’t start writing seriously until I was around 30, I can still produce meaningful work. What will I do with my life? Will I be limited by feelings and thoughts that say I’m too old to write or I don’t have anything worthwhile to share?
She had one painting that was huge, covering a good portion of one wall. The painting was white squiggly lines on a black background. A description to the side of the painting explained that the painting was about the artist’s idea of Dreaming. I don’t completely understand the significance of this idea, but throughout the museum, artists referred to this idea.
Third, Hilda Rix Nicholas inspired me to use travel as an opportunity to write and create. I tend to avoid writing while I’m traveling because I sometimes feel like writing is work and I want to take a break while I’m traveling. Sometimes I’m also so busy traveling that I don’t take time to sit back and think about and reflect on the things that I’ve seen. But what if I took a trip to beautiful places just to write?
Hilda and her friend, Dorothy Richmond took all of their art supplies on a painting trip around Australia. I love reading about people’s travels as they take road trips around different places. I loved Peter Hessler’s Country Driving (although I don’t think I could survive off of Oreos and pop). I also loved reading Adrian Winter and Albert Wolfe’s The Great China Quest where they took 30 days to try to complete 15 different challenges around China.
My brother and I took a week-long road trip from Sydney to Melbourne, stopping at little towns, beaches, caves, a koala island, and other lovely little places (I’ll try to write a post about that later on.) I also bought a book about a writer who took a road trip around Australia. So what’s to stop me from taking a writing road trip around China? I have lots of places that I want to visit! Maybe I could even take a friend or two with me.
Those are some of the things that I found inspiring in this wonderful museum.
What are some things that inspire you? What are some things that make you want to sit down at your computer and write a story or poem? What is something that makes your fingers itch to pick up a paintbrush or pencil or camera?
I’d love to hear what some of those things are! Let me know in the comments or an email!