Bringing India Home
"The images in Lyn Harrison's paintings are usually quite surprising. Like Marc Chagall she works straight from her subconscious, or as Lyn would say, from a "waking dream".
In her most recent series of paintings however the images seem more firmly grounded in reality. We see the interior of her own studio. The familiar blue chair, hand painted by Lyn; paint pots, easel, plump colouful cushions. And gazing out the studio window we are suddenly confronted by an Indian Holy man in his bright orange robes staring in at us. Other works show the elegant shapes of boats on the Ganges River. And what do we have here now when we look out the studio window? It is the blue god Krishna, bestowing a blessing to a kneeling boatman.
These works are the result of a month spent in the north of India, which Lyn describes as one of the most amazing events of her life. "To describe it as another planet is an understatement" she says: "A total sensory onslaught, where the unexpected happens at every step".
These works are a part of a new exhibition called "Bringing India Home" which will be showing at the Nolan On Lovel Gallery in February. The paintings, acrylics on canvas, are relatively small compared to Lyn's previous work. In some of the works such as Shiva's Trident and Monkey, the studio itself becomes the India setting, and looking out the window we see the familiar houses of Myrtle Street Katoomba.
" When I returned to Australia the images from the trip were so clear in my mind, that it seemed quite natural to paint them in my own living space" Lyn said."