prints for sale

The Texan born founder of the Hoochery, Spike Desert, had just finished building his rustic western style bar and wanted a nude painting to hang over the bar. While sampling the range of delicious rums created on site, I overheard him discussing his intention to purchase a copy of the famous painting of Chloe, a Parisienne nude that hangs in the bar at Young and Jackson in Melbourne.

The Hoochery, a rum distillery is located in a beautiful part of the world, on the outskirts of an outback town in the Kimberley region of West Australia. As painter I was of course taken aback. Firstly because he needed a landscape shaped image over the long wooden bar and Chloe is portrait shaped. Secondly, in my opinion the subject matter had to be relevant to the region.

So I offered to paint this painting for the bar. The resulting oil on the three canvases measured 2.5mt x 1.5mt in total. Endless number of people enquired about the location of the billabong over the years but the secret was kept and still is.

The painting was on loan to The Hoochery for many years until the family purchased that image for him as a gift.