Being There Is Everything

1500 x 750mm

This great housebus set-up is a hermits’ home on the rugged Wairarapa coastline where private hill country farms roll pretty much from the desolate beaches to State-highway 2, taking up the bottom south-east corner of the north Isand .  It’s a fairly remote part of the country, well, of the world for that matter.  With an abundance of seafood out your bus door, fertile soil and no one around, it’s the perfect place to escape to.  Whoever lived here was organised, and I guess one had to be to survive out here. He had tomatoes growing on the inland side of the bus to keep them protected from the harsh salt winds, a kayak and fire wood stored under the bus, crayfish pots were bobbing around just off the deck, and a creek for fresh water nearby.  Who was this recluse? What was he like, had he been a lawyer, a suit, in New York or London and realized it wasn't really him? Had he travelled the world as a nomad and this was just one of his many stop-offs on his bigger journey? What were his reasons for pursuing solitude?  All these questions go through my head every time I look at this painting and I think at the bottom of it all I’m inspired by his back-to-basics, non conformist way of life.