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| Grandad at the ANZAC Services in South Korea, 2012 |
So the notion permeated in the back of my mind for a few months until the start of April when my Grandad came over. When he saw some of the portraits I've done of other family members, he asked me to paint one of him. I was so caught up in thought and so busy brainstorming ideas that I'm pretty sure I barely gave him a half hearted promise to look into it.
The timing was impeccable. I had slightly more than one week to get it done in time for ANZAC Day.
So here's the original….
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| Jack Gardner |
Jack Gardner was…I think he was painting houses for a living, in those days…when he won the lottery, was decked out in state of the art duds and packed aboard a celebratory birthday cruise before spending the next 2yrs backpacking around Korea.
Sounds alright when you put it like that. Truth is, he was a kid. When his number was drawn he had to drop everything and leave everyone to answer the call. I think it was his 19th birthday that he "celebrated" at sea heading towards a war.
When the British troops first arrived in Korea they were poorly provisioned so they really had a rough time of it from the very beginning. The British field uniform of the day was totally inappropriate for the Korean winters and hot sticky summers. The Americans actually ended up providing the men with some warm (and fur lined) field uniforms to get them through the winters.
I could write paragraphs about troop uniforms here. I know more about troop uniforms that I ever imagined possible. Seriously, if you're ever in the Hotchair with Eddie McGuire, you know which friend to phone if it's a question about field uniforms.
Anyways….
Let's get into it.
I always start by transferring the sketch to canvas.
I always start by transferring the sketch to canvas.
The uniform he's wearing turned out to be the trendy new polyester Olive Green duds and the photo itself was actually taken in Japan (where he had 2wks leave before boarding the ship home to England; the journey took six weeks). He's sitting in front of a Japanese screen and knowing the furniture styles of the era I settled on a golden-sepia inspired palette for the background with Grandad in full colour.
I was really nervous about taking on that screen in the background. It reminds me of Japanese ink painting and those artists use ink a little bit like watercolours so they can be quite colourful creations. I wasn't sure if I could make it work without faint washes of reds and blues but it turned out to be really fun and really…apposite…with the rest of the painting.
The background came together quickly so I moved on to finishing the base coats in the foreground.
Then I went to start building up the secondary coats….
…and the whole painting just fell into place!!
I'm still trying to figure out what the heck happened!
Everything just clicked.
I usually spends days building up layers of shadows and highlights. I call it 'tinkering'…it sometimes takes me weeks to define the facial features and bone structure and fiddle around with the colour of my skin tones.
I was blown away with how well this came together for me. I was meant to pour my heart and soul into this painting (it's sentimentally priceless) but it was so effortless that I felt like I had cheated.
Before I knew it, ANZAC Day was upon me. This photo was taken the night before, I actually pulled an all-nighter putting the finishing touches on the chair and background then varnishing the canvas just in time for me to grab the nearest children (I only snagged two of them) and go watch Grandad march in the ANZAC parade.
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| Four generations; my Nana (Marge Gardner), myself and my Mum (Sue Caissy) along with Caleb and Baby David. |
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| After the ceremony. Note to two small children in the background about to run through the middle of the parade…they would be my children, of course. |
You should have seen his face when he saw us in the crowd! He was so happy, it was worth it just to see his smile. Then when the ceremony started and I watched him standing there "at ease" with the other Vets…it broke a little piece of my heart. God, that was a horrendous war. All wars are but Korea was downright ghastly.
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After the ceremony we went and enjoyed a lunch at the local RSL before we making our way home to Nana and Grandad's. He had no idea!! I had barely even answered him when he asked me for a portrait, I hadn't inquired about the colour of uniforms or asked for any details about the photo…we literally sprung it on him when he wasn't looking.
I'm 31yrs old and I have never heard my Grandad swear, never so much as heard him raise his voice in anger.
I will never ever forget the words that slipped out of his mouth when he turned around and found this painting on his desk.
It's possibly one of The Proudest moments of my life.
I made that happen!! I made him say that!!
He also told me something, we were joking about the before and after pic's and he said to me "if you had seen me six week before that photo was taken…" before trailing off and leaving the rest of the sentence to my imagination. I take it there's a lot to be said for a steady diet of saki and sushi.
I've got two older brothers, we've all asked him a lot of questions about this war over the years and none of us are the wiser for it…he'd have us believe he spent his time there filling sandbags and polishing shoes. I don't know what he did or how much action he saw, Mum says she grew up hearing his nightmares though. But whatever it was, it shaped him.
Those experiences in Korea carved him into the man he is today...not just the Grandad I grew up with but the man behind the Grandad persona. And he's a damned good man. He's the type of guy who is first to arrive and last to leave, who would walk over hot coals to help a stranger then take the shirt off his back and give change from his pocket, the type of guy who's 80+ years old and still mowing the neighbours lawns. He's possibly The Most patient, kind hearted and quick witted person I know.
And when I grow up, I want to be just like him.
