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"The Strawberries", c. 1995. Quick post to check Instagram integration with my website norvalwatson.com … The strawberries were little party accessories – tiny squares of blotting paper with little strawberries printed on them. Maybe there were tiny little pills 🤔 anyway they were pretty popular in our household around that time and this is actually one of the few paintings that I did as a group effort. 90% of it is by me but the rest is by my friends Bianx, JohnBrad and the late MikeyMike. I actually gifted this painting to the three of them which may or may not have been a good idea and ownership became quite foggy after a while and I think the painting actually succumbed to a bad case of mould when it was hung on a damp wall for a while. It's all a bit of a mystery. #contemporaryart #theelectrickoolaidacidtest

"Looking North from the Long Forest", plein air* oil on panel, 1989. I painted this view looking from the Long Forest up to Mount Blackwood when I was just getting started in oils. I made a "pochade box" which is a little portable box with room for a couple of sliding panels to paint on, and a dozen or so tubes of paint, and a little bottle of turps and some brushes. I still have it and I'll post a photo soon. I made the frame out of recycled Oregon** builders planks and sculpted that with a first gen Arbortrch blade which is probably the most dangerous tool known to mankind. I had a workshop in the forest where I could machine timber all day long, but I can't do that anymore so no more handmade frames. *Plein air just means plain air, as in you did the painting outside looking at the subject. ** Oregon is the Australian name for Douglas fir timber #pleinair #landscape #longforest

What's not to like about lighthouses? Edward Hopper is one of my favourite artists, and the book is a big, heavy catalog of an exhibition of his work at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. The painting on the wall is "Goatstock", featuring the goats that used to frequent the Byron Bay lighthouse precinct, and of course the immortal Jimi Hendrix. I painted it in 2011. Can't remember if it's oil or acrylic because I like painting with both. Big thanks to the Seattle Watsons for gifting me this wonderful book, which will be on my book stand for another couple of weeks at least, and I think I've had a good long look at it several times before.

Koala in the rain! 🐨 I spent an hour Sunday afternoon setting up a camera bag I could access easily while I am riding my trike. This enables me to carry my good Canon sx70 camera with the super zoom for taking wildlife and surfing photos. Naturally I thought I'd better take it for a test run. Lo and behold, I got halfway up the lighthouse Road to the Pass turn off, and there were a lot of people looking up into a tree. Which generally means only one thing. Koala! 🐨👀 So I whipped out the camera and got the shot. The last time I saw a koala in town was probably 10 years ago when there were a lot of people looking up into one of the big trees outside the old supermarket. It had been dry all day, but it started raining lightly and I continued up to the lighthouse, and then carefully rode/drove down on the slippery roads without spinning out and having a crash. First ride on the trike in the rain.

My old linocut kit. Going by the subject matter this would be around 55-60 years old. I might pull a few prints and put them on sale but they would have to go for pounds Sterling rather than dollars and cents 😉 Check it out @giosuprano.art 👀

I had this dream where I was dancing around and all these birds flew out of my head. "Birdman II", oil on panel, 1991. This one came up in conversation recently when I was chatting with @bricolagegerard about friends in general and Lucy in particular. She bought this painting. She doesn't really do social and I don't have any contact details but I do wish her well ❤️‍🩹 I was rummaging around in my storage and I found a photo album I've been looking for, so I'll post a few gems when I get a round tuit. That's one of Dad's jokes, he used to say, I really need a round tuit. #contemporaryart

TYME2RYDE, acrylic on polycotton, 102 X 152.5cm, 2026. Entered in the Fisher's Ghost Art Prize as of today. $50,000 for the winner, $5,000 for People's Choice, but first you've got to be chosen as one of maybe 40 finalists from an entry pool of probably over a thousand artists. 🤞 🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️ The inspiration for this artwork was the Campbelltown Bicycle Education Centre. And now getting back to where I was, putting the finishing touches on "Gunnamatta", and that particular painting will be heading down to Melbourne as soon as the volunteer courier finalises his schedule 🚐 No hurry 😊

You never know who you're going to run into down at Main Beach on Sunday afternoon. BFF @mather1989 @sammymather.creative