One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is “How long did it take to paint?”

Sometimes it’s hard to say as the conceptualising of it can take time and sometimes this is happening without you being entirely aware of it. In 1991 I first saw Velázquez’s Las Meninas at the Prado in Madrid. A dizzying experience. The sheer magic of it was mesmerising.

For years I’ve been wondering how I could incorporate it into one of my paintings and this year I finally found the answer with the printed scarf. After all, Las Meninas is about the unfolding of stories within stories and the masterful trick of who’s actually being painted.

By re-presenting it as a reproduction on a scarf and then reproduced back on to canvas also alludes to the twists and turns within the painting itself. Is it a painting of the King and Queen we can see reflected in the mirror or the 2 princesses (las meninas of the title) in front? The younger princess is the focal point so perhaps Velázquez is presenting the future of the royal family stepping in front of the past.

This juxtaposing of past and future is a constant in my own work and sometimes we’re stepping into the future before we even know it ...

After my 2019 exhibition at Arthouse Gallery I was wandering along Macleay St in Sydney and picked up some treasures including a top hat and a brass rabbit with the vague thought that they might be fun in a painting.

I photographed the white rabbit back in 2011 at a remote and unexpected petting farm while on an art residency at Albany, Western Australia.

And just in case I wasn’t finally bringing all these magical elements together, while sitting in my car waiting for the school bus to arrive to p/u Rothko, my 13 year old, I noticed the vehicle next to me with a massive sign advertising the local magic show called The Illusion Show. I’d been parking within sight of this mobile ad for almost a year!

And so The Illusionists & Other Stories was finally complete in my mind and when anyone asks me how long did this painting take I can honestly say “About 31 years”.

Oh and the zebras? The collective noun for zebras is a “dazzle” from the concept of “motion dazzle” a form of defensive patterning that protects them as they move as a group ... a kind illusion that blends art and nature. – Kate Bergin