The ‘Rebels of Reddells’ painting was inspired by the walls of over cooked dark red compacted ‘pindan’. She mimics a fossilised warrior standing guard on the edge of the white stained sand of Reddells Beach.
Her great wall elongates and snakes its way up and down the Kimberley coast, holding back the red winds of desert sands and ruggedly edging the corrosive high tides.
Her silent cliffs have witnessed sail ships and cyclones, dinosaurs and murderers, ancient rivers and modern drones, but still she holds strong.
The canvas paints a time when freedom was climaxed and forged by the fit, young baby boomers and their hot FJ Holdens. Fresh minds broke barriers with bold disobedience and ran their bodies down walls of constitutions and convention, building their own stamp of fun in a brand new day. They challenged the ‘pindan’ wall and like an old tired headmistress, she allowed them to play.
As the world moved on, Reddells Beach remains unchanged and she still beckons the adventurous to worm their way down the eroded banks of baked ‘pindan’. The hot salty water still invites the free spirited water babies to swim amongst the schools of ocean fish. The Broome dogs still leave their fresh sandy footprints alongside the ancient dinosaur tracks.
If you squint with the high tide sun, your imagination can still see and smell the hot engines of the old FJ’s ploughing their way through the sand, full of rebellious laughs and loud spirits, to park themselves on the edges of the ‘pindan’ and overlook the Rebels of Reddells.
