BY taking a look at Barry Pressing’s art work some things that might come to mind are animation, global issues and the hippie surf and music scenes of the 60s and 70s.
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Mr Pressing, more commonly known as H.Fish, is a Californian-born artist who is able to take a blank canvas and turn it into a feast for the eyes.
Using a series of odd shaped canvases along with a mixture of enamels, lacquers and urethanes, H.Fish gains inspiration from a life growing up along the East Coast of the USA.
Now at 65, H.Fish reminisces through his art on his surfing heydays in the US and Hawaii in the early 60s as well as the psychedelic poster art he created in San Francisco during the ‘hippie movement’ and a time when he also had the opportunity to met famous singer Janis Joplin.
In a more modern context though, H.Fish breaks the boundaries by exploiting some of the most talked about issues of today such as global warming and the catastrophic tsunami which rocked Japan and resulted in the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
He also touches on an end of the world scene through his work titled ‘Apocalypto’ which looks at red colours that signify volcanoes and scenes of the earth opening.
Reflecting on the mammoth piece of art, H.Fish says it took him a month to plan and close to six months to paint.
So after two years for his latest project to come together, H.Fish is now showing a collection of 34 of his works in Taree.
More than 200 people from the Great Lakes and Manning Valley attended the official opening on Friday, February 7 and H.Fish said he couldn’t be happier with the response.
“It was brilliant,” he said.
“I’ve tried to make it an international exhibit like something you would see in Sydney or New York on a local scale and it has been a success.
“It’s been an intense two year work project that tries to take the big social issues of today, facing humanity and puts them into art."
- Tallwoods' artist H.Fish
“My work is the medium I’ve chosen to explain these issues.
“It’s like a storytelling through the visual.”
After relocating to Australia in 2003, H.Fish has called Tallwoods estate home for a number of years where he lives with his partner Kerry.
If you’re a resident of the area or have travelled to Diamond Beach lately then you may have wondered how a huge, wooden, free-standing construction on Diamond Beach got there.
Well, H.Fish is the man behind it.
“My wife and I built that,” he said laughing.
“Back in California in the 50s and 60s surf scene there were a lot of driftwood beach shacks about.
“It might be a smaller population here, but we have the open space so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t use the natural elements to build one.
“They’re great for kids to play on and for anyone who wants to shade themselves from the sun.”
You can see H.Fish’s exhibition ‘Visions’ at the Manning Regional Gallery until March 3.
