Saturday 8 February 2014

Ayers Rock - Blast from the Past


In the 1980s I had an eight month stint working as a waitress at the Sheraton Ayers Rock Hotel in the newly built tourist town of Yulara. Yulara is situated 20 kilometres from the iconic Ayers Rock (Uluru) in the middle of Australia. I painted this while I was there - not by looking at the rock itself as you'd expect, but from a postcard of all things!! At the time I was very enamoured with the pointillism technique developed by the French post-impressionist painter Georges Seurat and tried to emulate his style.

I was recently composing an anecdote from this period in my life to include in the book I am writing at the moment. In my quest for supporting material I got in touch by email with one of my friends who I worked with at the hotel. We hadn't been in contact for at least 20 years and it was so nice to hear his news. Below is a photo of the two of us taken with his camera standing at the base of Ayers Rock.


It turns out that my friend has since become a very successful professional photographer. He is an award winning specialist car photographer and writer. You can check out his fantastic work at his website here - James Mann

Below is a photo taken "in the day" of me dressed for a toga party in front of my painting. And the last one was taken the day I was leaving Yulara to come home to Perth. It was such a great time of my life. I can't believe it's nearly 30 years ago! But then I look at my reflection in the mirror and it's not so hard to believe after all!





17 comments:

  1. Haha, great story Wendy! Nice photo's too! You did a really good job at emulating the French impressionists. Good luck with your book!

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  2. A nice show of photos down memory lane , you already knew how to paint for sure ! And I agree on the time passing so fast , the eighties seem like yesterday !

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    1. Thanks Jane! Yes, it's freaky how quickly time passes!

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  3. Hello Wendy! A wonderful journey down memory lane! Also a fantastic painting! Love the way you did the pointillism style! Love the photo of you and your friend! Both so very happy! Nice! Great photo of you in toga! Reminds me of movie "Animal House!" Nice to see the Ayers Rock painting on wall behind you! Must confess at first I didn't notice you sitting on the Yukara sign! Glad I did a second look! So carefree! Good for you! Or, Good on you? The landscape is so much like US southwest desert area. Arizona, New Mexico! A place called Red Rock Canyon in Arizona comes to mind. Beautiful! So now I am interested in your upcoming book! Do you also have a writing blog? My ever so funny brother as he was getting older once through out all the mirrors in his house. So funny. He didn't want to see so many changes! A great post Wendy! Nice to see you from "Back In The Day!" Take care Mate!
    Michael Age Of Aquarius!

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    1. Thanks so much Michael. All the staff at the resort had standard issue blue sheets, so there were no white togas to be seen at that party!
      Yes, from the movies and photos I've seen over the years it seems there are a lot of similarities between your desert states and our "red centre". I would love to visit Arizona some day - is that where the big iconic cactuses grow like you see on Cowboy movies?
      I don't have a writing blog - but may create one later. I have given myself a deadline to get a reasonably polished draft ready to give to a few friends to read so I can get some feedback. I'm hoping to paint again soon but feel compelled to get this draft finished first.
      I REALLY love your trolley painting!!
      Your art cobber,
      Wendy

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  4. What a beautiful photo's Wendy! So pretty and you still are. Very nice that you tried to do something in the pointillism technique. I love that style too. Thank you for sharing them. Great post! :)

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    1. You are too kind Hilje! I wasn't exactly channelling Georges Seurat with my pointillism painting but it's a nice reminder of that time in my life. Did you ever try anything in that style? I imagine you would have done a great job with it!

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  5. It looks like a fun time and I love your pointillist painting! Your warm smile has not changed! :-) Thanks for sharing your nice memories!

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    1. Thanks so much Celia! I did have a great time working in such a beautiful part of the world. It was quite an adventure at the time.

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  6. Thanks for sharing your memories! What good times! Your pointillism painting is wonderful! I have tried that too! And in the 80s, in college. It was an exercise in patience, no?

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    1. Thanks so much Kaethe! I'd love to see your pointillism exploits - do you still have them rattling around anywhere? Maybe we should revive the exercise!

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  7. I enjoyed reading about your background and seeing the great photos that went with your stories. Time flies by, doesn't it?

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  8. Thanks Joan! I've been so enjoying seeing all your local haunts shrouded in snow!

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  9. What a great post! Thanks for sharing!

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  10. It´s so fun to remember happy old times and friends from long time back. I met an old friend a couple of years back, we hadn´t seen eatchother for 15 years but we just went on talking as we had met the day before. It is like that with very good friends isn´t it! So nice to meet them again. I enjoyed your post!

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  11. Thanks Catharina! Yes it's fun catching up with people from our past. Hope your back is better now.

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