The Distance Between Us
Walk down any suburban street in Sydney and you’re likely to see an indiscriminate mix of building styles – from McMansions to Californian bungalows, triple fronted brick veneers to simple weatherboard and fibro cottages. Add to this a multicultural peppering of Spanish colonial archways or faux Greek colonnades and your average residential street is likely to resemble a pluralistic melting pot of styles and periods. This incongruity has had its detractors.
As far back as 1968, architect Robin Boyd wrote in his book ‘The Australian Ugliness’ that:
“In Australia, the artificial background of life is all highs and lows. A modernistic folly in multicoloured brickwork may sit next door to a Georgian maisonette on one side and a sensible work of architectural exploration on the other.”
Painter Peter O’Doherty seems to revel in this architectural jumble and likes to render in acrylic paint the eclectic variety of suburban homes that we all live in. He is drawn to the vernacular in architecture. Rather than capturing monumental or grandiose buildings in paint, he is a champion of the modest dwelling – unheroic and unnoticed.
The artist wants to draw our attention to buildings, structures and objects that we would normally walk past without a second glance. By highlighting these features, he ascribes a certain beauty to them that we can all perceive – a 1960s red brick apartment block, a flat top car port or pebble pave driveway.
A painter since the early nineties, for decades his artistic ambitions have quietly simmered alongside his musical career (as bass guitarist for ‘Mental as Anything’ and singer/songwriter with ‘Dog Trumpet’). Both his love of art and music are self-propelled. He first drew a series of motel bins whilst on tour, which led to domestic still life paintings and urban landscapes.
Through repetition and practice, “accidents of simplicity” would occur. Using musical analogies, such as rhythm, harmony and dissonance to describe his work, it is not surprising to learn that some of his favourite artistic influencers have had a musical bent, whether it be Paul Klee (Classical) or Jean-Michel Basquiat (Beebop Jazz and Hip Hop).
This New Zealand born son of a carpenter and builder has always been attracted to the constructed man-made environment, however in more recent years he has shifted between housing exteriors and their domestic interiors – featuring commonplace objects as his subject, whether it be a tiled bathroom basin, a gleaming kitchen stove or a colander in a cluttered sink. In his paintings of suburban buildings he likes to crop and zoom in, revealing close ups of their construction, so that they appear less architectural and more formal in their arrangement of blocks, colours and shapes.
The artist looks for harmony and symmetry in his compositions; often reducing forms further and further until they become abstract-like grids. A blocky grey set of balconies turns into a suite of gentle rectangular prisms, a pale blue facade of apartments with double windows becomes an elegant geometric composition. Even the hard cylindrical frame of a Jetstar plane is transformed into a rotund shape with soft edges and a pastel colour palette. His interplay of horizontal, vertical and diagonal forms are enhanced by his bold use of colour. Often based in warm terracotta tones, the artworks can feature a medley of soft hues or be reduced to two-tone, almost monochromatic, paintings in steely greys or blues.
His vistas are usually lit by a harsh midday sun, creating definitive shadows that add to the structure and evoke a quietude and stillness in the paintings that are enhanced by the soft edges of his dry brush technique. The glaring light and concealed interiors of the homes, can sometimes transmit an almost somnolent mood, of midsummer heat and stasis.
The enigmatic nature of these compositions could be intentional. Figures never appear in O’Doherty’s work and he comments on the often socially isolating nature of life in the suburbs, where no-one knows their neighbours or what goes on behind the closed doors and darkened windows. Unknown lives take place behind these faceless facades.
Nevertheless, these quintessentially Australian scenes are works of affection. The raison d’être for this artist lies in our every day experiences and prosaic routines.
To quote another musician and talented draughtsman, John Lennon:
“life is what happens to you while you’re busy making
other plans.”
Sydney Art writer and editor, Victoria Hynes
IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
