“Halcyon Days”
An unexpected but very welcome visitor recently appeared in our garden, a Sacred Kingfisher (Halcyon sanctus). It was an immense pleasure to see this beautiful creature darting about the Rose Garden and I was reminded of the ancient Greek belief that the kingfisher’s appearance was regarded as a portent of better times and times of plenty.
It awoke in me a deep sense of longing tinged perhaps with nostalgia and, despite these very difficult times, a curious hopefulness. These thoughts have now been transferred into the making of the works in this exhibition.
Inspiration for my work has long been sourced in the landscape and the natural world, with the drift towards greater degrees of abstraction being almost irresistible. Some recent significant developments in my repertoire of glazes and surface treatments, along with my continuing exploration of form has helped this along the way.
In this exhibition I have drawn on the rhythms, patterns and myriad events taking place in the natural world; its moods, contrasts, even dangers and tragedy, beautiful mornings of hazy blue light, wild storms that threaten and vistas that comfort and reassure.
This is my way of expressing hope and coming to terms with a deep sense of longing for better times – even a better world – for Halcyon Days!
Jeff Mincham AM
