A few days in September

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 18 September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 18

September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 18

September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 22 September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 22 September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

Evening Prayer Brunswick Heads, 22 September 2026, oil on canvas board, 25 X 20 cm

There is a curious film with the title 'A Few Days in September' which I like very much and still watch every few years. It stars Juliette Binoche and John Turturro, who naturally give great performances. Because it takes place between Paris and Venice there are two suitable younger stars to handle the love angle. And Nick Nolte makes a quick surprise entrance and even faster exit at the end of the film. 

Sometimes when I long for France and Italy I put it into my DVD player and play pretend that I'm there, and that I still drink white wine in a quaint bar behind the Giudecca. 

It's a hazy picture this film, and it's full of uncertainties, just like my favourite evenings here at the dusk hour when I come out to paint. We've had some really lovely mysterious-looking skies (and seas) over the past two weeks and I've gone to heaven there each night. Here are a few that speak in hushed tones and muted innuendos. They were done over these last few days of September.

Like the film, these discreet images seem to be masking the truth about what's really going on in the twilight sky. Because they're naturally fleeting, they also hide their mysteries. 

But alas, the rain has returned, and the metéo says it will not leave for another week or two. 

Anouk, a niece of a friend in France came to stay for a few days while traveling around Australia. A lovely woman who sized me up and immediately decided to organise my kitchen. She reminds me of Marie Kondo, the Japanese wizard of decluttering, known in Japan as 'fusui'. 

I will confess that I've let things go wild around here, both inside and out of my small home, my procrastination also appears to have grown like a long beard these past few years. So it was providential that Anouk arrived, and she just got to work with a quiet determined joy of getting a tough task done. 

Lately, I've felt like one of those lone sheep here in Australia that one sees on a TikTok video, the kind which somehow got away from the homestead, and after a brief few years was so weighted down with wool they could hardly walk anymore. But once found, they are brought home and sheared to resemble baby lambs all over again.