This picture was painted early in my foray into the artistic ethos. I have seen Machupuchare, ‘the fish’s tail’ mountain in Nepal on a couple of occasions. The most memorable time was when we were climbing Pisang, Chulu West and Chulu Far East peaks in the Marsyandi Valley. On the way out from the Himalayas we crossed Thorung La Pass to Muktinath and then trekked to Pokhara via the Kali Gandaki River. I saw Machupuchare from Poon Hill at sunset and at sunrise and in a gentle morning storm was given a perfect rainbow.
This was one of the Australian Army Mountaineering Club’s first expeditions in the Himalaya. How was I in the AAMC in the first place? I graduated from Duntroon Military College in Canberra and when I left the NZ Army the Aussie climbers slipped me in as an honorary member.
The thing most special to me in this piece is the execution of the Sanskrit phrase OM PADME HUM in the bottom left-hand corner. Sanskrit is a remarkable language, probably as close to the source – God – as anything we have apart from the Beth-Luis-Nion (another foray into linguistics altogether).
Gouache, watercolour, acrylic and glitter on paper, 2006
Kaitiaki: Mark W, Arrowtown, South Island, NZ
inanga
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