Over the Side: The Quiet Beauty of Returning

9 June

Returning from travels, I saw “Over the Side” with new eyes — drawn back to the familiar blues of Sydney’s waters and the quiet beauty that had been waiting all along.

Sometimes it’s good to step away. Not just from a studio or a project, but from your whole environment — to travel, to reset, to come back with new eyes.

That’s exactly what happened with Over the Side. After being away overseas for a while, I came back home to Sydney and started looking through my quick collection — a folder where I store artworks that I’m not quite sure about yet. Pieces that haven’t found their place.

When I finish a shoot, I usually rate everything from 0 to 10. Zero means there’s no future for that piece. Ten means it’s ready, right now. But most works fall somewhere in between. They need a little time. Over the Side was like that — sometimes I liked it, sometimes I wasn’t so sure. It was shot on the 1st of April 2024, and it had been quietly waiting since then.

Looking at it again after all that time away, it hit me — the blue. That beautiful, rich, shining blue of Sydney’s waters. It pulled me right back to everything I love about creating art on the water: the way the sunlight plays across the surface, the calm, the clarity.

It was like taking a deep breath. Over the Side had all the meditative, peaceful qualities I always look for. It wasn’t loud or showy — it was simple, bright, and quietly powerful.

Sometimes you need to leave for a while to really see. And when you do, you realize the work was ready all along.

If Over the Side speaks to you as it did to me, I invite you to explore it further — and perhaps, find a quiet moment of your own reflected back at you.