FIRST LIFE / JUMRUM

Jumrum Creek | Kuranda | Queensland | Australia

First Life / Jumrum | Scott Bennett | 2010 | Acrylic on canvas | 30″ x 40″ | Private collection

What was I thinking!

After seeing the 3D movie Avatar in Cairns. I was driving back up the mountain to Kuranda, up through the lush wet tropics and I started to notice the real world as a spectacle, I was seeing it for the first time, again!

The painting is of Jumrum Creek, which winds through the backyard of my friends property.
I lived on the grassy bank in my camper-van beside the creek when I first moved to Kuranda.

Lines on my mind:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
(From Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost)

And:

The old voice of the ocean, the bird-chatter of little rivers,
(Winter has given them gold for silver
To stain their water and bladed green for brown to line their banks)
From different throats intone one language.
So I believe if we were strong enough to listen without
Divisions of desire and terror
To the storm of the sick nations, the rage of the hunger smitten cities,
Those voices also would be found
Clean as a child’s; or like some girl’s breathing who dances alone
By the ocean-shore, dreaming of lovers.
(Robinson Jeffers, Natural Music)