Monday 31 March 2008

while wafting through a tourist souvenir shop here in Brisbane three or four years ago I became enamoured of a large painting signed by one John Rotumah. Its ease and facility with sharply executed black line astonished me. And then on top of the blacks there were white line decorations, with the whole lot over a flat colour ground. Wherever I found these shops serving the traveller looking to take home a piece of local colour by way of decorated boomerang, didgeridoo, or kangaroo scrotum coin purse, I'd look for Rotumah's work. Subsequent checks confirmed that his particular touch is quite exceptional. I picked up a small motif style original to take home and study at my leisure. Black and white line on a sprayed canvas base of yellow and green, and it really didn't cost very much considering the level of skill. I was and remain in awe of the guy's ability. This is an enlargement of an area two inches high:


Look at the tiny little tapered fingers on the kangaroo. I have it on my wall here and I look at them often.


I found a photo and biog here.
And this appears to be his brother Dean, also an artist.

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2 Comments:

Blogger spacedlaw said...

Very nice indeed. The "dot painting" section in the second link you are giving is quite interesting.

1 April 2008 at 00:51:00 GMT-5  
Blogger James Robert Smith said...

I like that! I've always thought that kangaroo hands were really weird looking. He captures that.

1 April 2008 at 02:43:00 GMT-5  

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