Well, this is a significant milestone, because I hadn’t been back since COVID. And so to go back with fresh eyes after having a long break from it meant that I could see New York from a new perspective.

The wonderful thing about New York is it changes all the time, and every time you go back you see something new. It’s a never-ending source of inspiration, and as the city itself changes so do you, so I go there as a new person, and New York is suddenly a new subject.

This trip, this exhibition is an accumulation of all the years that I’ve been going, and I was able to paint more freely and in a more assured way than ever.

What sets this series apart is the deep knowing of the city now, having been there for so many years and then stepping away from it for a long time. I’ve never had that much distance from Manhattan before. That distance – in time and space –                                    brought a new perspective. There is both a knowing and an unknowing in this body of work. For me that was exciting and inspirational.

The intensity of Manhattan is vibrant and intrinsic. If you’re open to it, you have to let it course through your veins and onto the work. As an expressionistic painter, the city’s energy shapes the marks I make.

New York provides inspiration for any theme – cityscapes, people, photography –                                                             everything. It’s full of contradictions, where your day can swing from incredible to unsettling to magical. It offers opportunities like nowhere else.

My strongest connection now is the people –      the friendships formed over many years. They’ve made it feel like home. From the beginning, it was the city itself that overwhelmed me emotionally. Artists like Martin Lewis connect me to a lineage. That idea of “If you can make it in New York… ” is real for me.

I got access to the Chrysler Building through a connection from my first apartment. I met the Chrysler real estate agent and he gave me access.

As a student watching the film, The Shock of the New, I dreamed of painting the Chrysler. To stand on the gargoyle balconies –       where only Margaret Bourke-White had stood before –       was surreal, it still is!

An absolute thrill. Being beside those gargoyles felt like time-travelling. There was a sense of responsibility, following in Margaret Bourke-White’s footsteps.

Working from above makes the city peaceful and cohesive. The lights at night reminded me of jazz – yellow cabs like flames. I thought of Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1927 painting, “Radiator Building-Night, New York. Also from that height, everything flows beautifully.

The 2am incident where a car followed me down the street was unforgettable. It was the first time I felt real danger.

However the trip was also full of generosity: the Rimadesio event, the Australian American Association (AAA) residency overlooking midtown with the Empire front and centre, a Madison Avenue apartment where I painted 24/7 day and night .

It reminded me never to become complacent. I felt like a New Yorker –      maybe too comfortable and that incident made me more aware and protective of my wellbeing and to never totally let my guard down. New Yorkers know this, I had to learn this! .

I chose to bring this body of work to Melbourne because I felt it needed to be shown here. Bringing these pieces back to Melbourne for me, it feels like they are artifacts of my time in New York. So even though some of the work remains in New York, this time I decided to bring a lot back with me.

Starting them on site gives me that initial expressive response between me and the city.

Finishing the work back home means I’m not trapped by literal translation – I can include my own responses and my own personal myth into a city that is already mythic.

I would like them to feel the energy and immediacy in which I work, and the overwhelming, powerful, mythic presence of Manhattan.

It’s a metropolis that can be overwhelming at times, and I hope people feel that – the motivations and the inspiration –                                                without me saying a thing. I hope they see my integrity, and that I’m painting in a direct, unpretentious manner.

Two pieces feel like the heart of the show: The Empire and the Water and New York at Night. They are among the largest works I’ve ever made and each one began as a different painting and evolved into something entirely new.

New York at Night began as a daytime painting years ago and transformed into a moonlit, expressionistic night scene with stacked, cave-like buildings and a jazz-like rhythm.

The Empire and the Water is almost a “mindscape of my imagination” –        an invented, dreamlike New York where the city and water shimmer in the same way. Both paintings contain years of layers, pentimento, mistakes, and history.