Saturday, August 10, 2013

Up on the Hill for Marri Tree Resin

Next morning was spent hosing down and cleaning out the car and washing Greg's jeans and boots. I'm not sure what I was doing!

That afternoon we met up with an artist friend named Greg White who lives across the road from where we are staying and runs a gallery called the 'White Space Gallery' He kindly offered to take us up to the top of a local hill to see the view and collect some resin off the Karri trees. This is to meltdown and then paint onto canvas for a beautiful rich red colour that dries like glass.
   

We waited in his driveway alongside his open top Land Rover. It still had the remnants of all the rain from the past few days inside of it and with grey clouds above, it looked like there was more to come. I could see the roof lying in the grass on the other side of the house and looked like it had been there for months and wasn't going any where today!  He had a nice looking 4w/d on the other side of the driveway, with a roof and comfy seats but when Greg/artist came to meet us he wasn't walking towards that one. Instead he walked towards this old pre-seatbelt-ex-army-1964 LandRover (not a Jeep) without a roof  and said hop in! While I considered which puddle of water I would sit in I decided to stay in the front with the two Gregs. The front window was impossible to see through. No problem, that gets pushed forward towards the bonnet and out of the way!

What a blast from the past. I grew up in Land Rovers and before I knew it I was back to my childhood and feeling real special to be sitting in the front with Mum and Dad. Us five kids usually sat in the back. All the gear sticks and levers and dials were so familiar. Even the gear box sounded familiar, especially when it crunched, which bought back memories of taking my driving lessons in my dad's Land Rover and knocking out a gate post as I came into our driveway.

Without warning, I swear it felt like an almost 90 degree wild ascent up the hill with pot holes all the way, and though Greg the artist handled the vehicle and the terrain extremely well I still thought I was going to meet my death in this Land Rover- either from a tree branch decapitating my head or from being thrown out the vehicle! We were rocking and rolling and I held on for dear life. Greg was acting his usual calm self but I knew better! 

Not soon enough we came to the top of the hill and it was worth every second of the ride from hell!
Greg is straight into demonstrating how to collect the resin and how to recognise which are Karri trees. I was now in heaven.  Out in nature collecting all natural materials for my artwork.  

 After a little photography we headed back down the sacred hill. It was an amazing place. An ancient aboriginal site where initiation ceremony's were held.

On the way back down I was slightly more prepared for the ride and just held on tight to the dash board! Fantastic experience thanks to Greg White!

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