The art of painting as a mode of expression

Beginnings of painting

There is no trace of any art made by Neanderthal man who lived in Europe and central Asia between 230.000 and 30.000 years ago. However, from modern man who first appeared 120.000 years ago there is an abundance of evidence of the human ability to create images. On the walls of caves people made paintings, mainly of the animals that they hunted. The purpose of these paintings is not merely decorative but religion and magic seem to have played an important role. The art of oil painting indeed dates back many centuries and some of the earliest oil paintings are from the Egyptians and Greeks. Through the centuries monks, too, have used oil paintings, not to decorate walls but as manifestations of their religious life's. It took until the 15th century before oil paints became widely available and around this time the Renaissance style of painting emerged, largely centred on Italian artists. However, a famous Flemish painter was mainly responsible for the renewed interest in the use of oil and the new style of oil painting. During the following centuries several very famous names in the art of oil painting found new materials to improve the quality, or facilitate the use of oil paints, as well as developing new techniques. The Italian artists guarded the secrets of their formulas well and this is one of the main reasons why the Italians dominated the Renaissance style of oil painting until after 1600 when the Flemish artist Rubens was one of the earliest artists to use the new Baroque oil painting style. Since then other important styles of oil painting, too numerous to detail here, have been developed and used.

Leo explains... I started painting as a hobby during the mid 1970's, mainly copying famous paintings by the 17th century Dutch masters with a preference for Rembrandt and Vermeer. Some of these copies are shown in the gallery at the bottom of this page. Please be aware that most of these paintings were photographed many years ago with a simple analogue camera and in the process of scanning the images to my computer colours and tones have often suffered dramatically. (If the beautiful old frames look too good to be true, they are the product of a clever image editor!) Some years later my interest shifted to the French impressionists but I was still content to copy the well known paintings, very often in the most minute details. After a "break" from painting that lasted some years I resumed the hobby with renewed interest and this time was much inspired by the typical colours and unique atmosphere of the Australian landscape. But again, I mainly concentrated on making copies and when this no longer appealed to me I finally started painting my own work. I very much like to paint the deserted and often dilapidated, ramshackle huts and cottages that today can still be seen in some of the most remote areas of inland Australia and in these small paintings I try to capture the sense of desolation, the vastness of the Australian landscape, the shimmering heat of this dry Continent and the ominous skies of an impending storm. As well, these deserted relics of days long past all have a story to tell and hopefully in these paintings is something preserved of the unique character of Australia's past. I have no formal art training, painting for me is just one more relaxing hobby and my paintings do not pretend to be anything else but the results of just that. All paintings are in oils on craftwood board, average size including frame approx. 25x20 cm (approx. 7"x5") Please keep checking back as these galleries will be updated at intervals.
Please click thumbnails to enlarge




Something different

Copies of my paintings by "Old Masters" and some contemporary artists

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