margaret worthington

I enjoy travelling and I create exhibitions consisting of paintings and sculptures that  document my journeys and experiences. I learn more about myself through my  travels both physically and metaphorically.  Recently I visited a desert environment to get some ideas from the landscape for  new works. I went out bird watching and spent time at the Alice Springs Desert Park  where the night spotlighting was fantastic. Full moon at the park watching bilbies  feed was fun. I also went out to special sand dunes and looked at the plants that  grew there. There had been good rain and the desert was blooming. I was very aware of the spirit of each place. Some environments felt welcoming,  others there was a definite message not to linger too long. I managed to see  and experience a great deal in the time I was there. The changing light on the  MacDonnell ranges was vivid, intense, and dramatic. The spirit of the place was  everchanging.  I wanted to capture the fierceness of the land as well as its beauty. The ochres and  oranges of the range contrasting with the delicate grey green leaves of the mauve  flowering Eremophilas. Again, alluding to this eternal conflict- friend or foe, angry or  inviting, harsh and delicate, the dichotomy of this landscape. Such beauty, such a  harsh landscape. I am sensitive to places, this trip made me especially aware of my feelings in the  different areas. I returned to my studio and began to paint. My work continued on from my previous  exhibition Tropicvs Capricornvs, which detailed landscapes along the Tropic of  Capricorn. Both Alice Springs and Heron Island are near this line of latitude. I returned home a few weeks earlier than planned and I was lucky enough to fit in a  trip to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef. Normally I create a body of work about the journey that I have undertaken. This was  different as it became about two very different journeys. I decided to start painting  and let my work show me the way.  Nick Cave in his Red Hand files says ‘Art doesn’t like being told what to do. It  doesn’t like me getting in the way. When I attempt to impose my will upon it, the  work becomes diminished, and art takes its better ideas elsewhere’ Art is a divine  and mysterious force that runs through all of us. It is a thing of supreme spiritual  potential that only comes into its true and full being if we abandon all those  cherished ideas about who we think we are or are not.’ Nick Cave The Red Hand  Files #240 Spirit of place, place of spirit. An ongoing journey.