tide line & accelerator
"Wet Dreams'. Don Hill Tide Line Image from 2019BRUCE BAY AND BEYOND (Images courtesy John Dahlsen and Estate of Fred Williams, as well as the Estate of Made Wianta) "Tide Line' photographic images featured by Don Hill 2015 to 2021 Bruce Bay New Zealand and Nudgee Beach, Brisbane, Queensland.
"You Yangs Landscape'. Fred Williams 1963 Art Gallery of New South Wales and Estate of Fred Williams Oil Paint on Masonite, 137.0 x 180.3cm
"Beach Detail 2" John Dahlsen 2019 Found plastics, resin (sustainable plant based), oil on primed Belgian linen 183cm x 183cm
"Pacific Garbage Patch #6. John Dahlsen 2018 Found plastics, resin (sustainable plant based), chalk, primed Belgian linen 183cm x 183cm
Tide Line Image by Don Hill This current Adventure in Art began in 2015 at Bruce Bay on the South Island of New Zealand some 40 kilometres South of Fox Glacier.I was struck by the profound visual of sculptured forms in wood, light, sand and sea.Sadly Bruce Bay as it was is no more as it has been transformed into a new road utilizing the forms that were there into a retaining and rock wall to hold back the sea from the new road.Nothing of the old beach can be recognized or has been left as it was in the past.The original contact which I stumbled upon by accident in 2015 became an Epiphany and I began to take photos with no concern for time, weather or where I was on that day/s. All that counted was the recording of forms and shapes on this beach.“This Beach that is No More’.For me it was discovery. A new Journey. It became an Exploration of Abstract forms in Nature.
Close up and Face to Face.
No name, No tracks, No trace, No involvement, No damage or clutter. Just sculptured raw forms.
Bruce Bay Featured in my first book "Accellerator' in which I presented an ideal world except in the piece "Driven". I believe this piece has relevance as it did not arrive at Bruce Bay via wheels. It was washed ashore at some stormy interval.
This second Book "Tide Line" is a collaboration with Artist John Dahlsen and examines the impact of Weather, Wind, Tide and Waves without influence of Humans on this fragile Coastline and also displays and involves John’s major works of the Pacific Vortex "Garbage Patch', "Detail Series’ and other Subjects.
Presenting natural Beach sculpture and Micro Landscape Works the Photo images were captured on location at Hunts Beach, Gillespie Beach and other places that hold a wealth of Debris and Form.
All of the works are now titled.
I have never set out to deliver a Statement about Environmental concerns nor do I need to. Just to document and observe in the Present is enough.
A discovery.
Don Hill 2022
Tide Line Image by Don Hill ACCELERATOR 2019
ISBN 978-1-64606-420-5
In 2015 I took my second trip back to New Zealand after an absence of eight years.
This came about as a holiday but turned into a point of discovery in the South Island when I encountered an area called Bruce Bay thirty or so kilometers south of Fox Glacier.
Bruce Bay at that time was covered in debris which had been washed out of the rivers and finally deposited on it's shore.
The continual churning of the waves and battering of these objects had the effect of turning them into natural sculptures.
During the trip I had taken pretty photos of most of the areas that I had visited so there is probably a wealth of similar shots taken by people around the globe.
On arrival at Bruce Bay I was stunned by the landscape.
This was something I had never encountered before as it spoke to me, an epiphany if you like.
I remember the morning as it was very cold and the area was inhabited by large sand flies that were happy to take chunks out of your skin.
This in mind the cold and insects did not defeat me and I took multiple photos with my battered old Fuji camera which had pretty much been everywhere on the planet with me.
Later on I googled images of Bruce Bay and yes there were some panoramas but not a single photograph of the sculptured debris that I discovered there.
Tide Line Image by Don Hill Pictured Photographic Works: South Island West Coast and Nudgee Beach "Tide Line', "Accelerator' Photography by Don Hill between 2015 - 2021.
Pictured Work by John Dahlsen "Detail Series' Found plastics, resin (sustainable plant based), Belgian linen 183cm x 183cm 2018
Pictured: Fred Williams "(1927-1982)
"You Yang's landscape ' (1963) oil on Masonite, 137.0 x 180.3cm
Courtesy and thanks to Lyn Williams and the Estate of Fred Williams for the use of images of his works.
Pictured: Made Wianta (1949-2020) "Air Pollution' 2014 Courtesy Estate of Made Wianta
In Tide Line. Arts Writer, Journalist and Master of Arts, Yuliana Kusumastuti Muses the similarities between Johns found Micro Plastics and Fred Williams Oil painted landscapes as well as examples of works by Made Wianta.
"Air Pollution' by Made Wianta 2014. Collection of the Singapore Art Museum. Motorcycle exhaust pipes, stainless pipe 250 x 300 x 300 cm
Dr John Dahlsen
Tide Line Image by Don Hill Tide Line ISBN 978-1-64826-235-7 Released 2020
"Tide Line' Limited edition Prints, Signed, Numbered and on Archival Paper still Available for $87 each. Free Shipping in Australia
A collaboration between Don Hill and Dr John Dahlsen with written content by Yuliana Kusumastuti Master of Arts, Artist and Writer, John Dahlsen and Don Hill
Additional images courtesy Lyn Williams and the Estate of Fred Williams as well as the Estate of Made Wianta.
Now in its Third and Final Edition
This time the arrival at Nudgee Beach was a fill in, as all of us were now trapped in Australia because of the Lockdowns. I was missing New Zealand and other photographic possibilities that I was hoping to capture there and put into printed form with a possible new book including digital prints.
At first there was a struggle to deal with a blank canvas that stretched out in front of me with the shallow tidal pools, sea grass and mangroves as well as beautiful Moreton Island making prominence in the background.
It seemed ages since I had walked it's shore and dived its wrecks and reefs.
Arriving here was like entering a foreign world and at first I struggled with it but as the months passed the subject became clearer in my mind as well as camera use.
In 2015 I had stumbled across something new that was undiscovered by other humans, rich and diverse, a scape that everyone else had passed or walked by regarding it as unimportant even though they observed it daily without seeing anything that could persuade them otherwise.
They did not see the possibilities that drew me further to this subject.
It was Bruce Bay and it had a hidden secret that subject could be found everywhere as long as you could identify with and interact with it.
This was all new and not just another series of panoramic shutter clicks.
While Nudgee was intimidating as everything looked the same at the first encounters the New Zealand Tide Line, Bruce Bay experience was like a harpoon through the heart.
It opened my mind and eyes to Art again.
Since then my arrival at Nudgee has become a morph of molten new experience with different titles and shots erupting from a new camera as well as more images taken with my battered old Fuji.
Nudgee presents a Non Objective pallette which on a first encounter is hard to deal with and decipher.
A hieroglyphic composition or exquisite Pollock or Fairweather in disguise.
Which way should the subject be approached, contemplated, created, completed and presented.
This makes the subject matter difficult to deal with as well as progress on as an individual. It was abstraction at the very start and in some ways it still is even with the finished art. There had never been an attempt to set out to make definitive detailed pieces, only definitive art to encourage an emotive response from the audience.
The result is found in the following with most photos taken in the early morning at low tide with minimal interference and virtually no editing.
Tide Line Image by Don Hill Each Print has been created using a Digital Process for maximum Beauty onto Neutral PH Paper. Approximate Sizes are 610 x 330 mm. Signed and Numbered. Free Shipping within Australia. Now only $87 per print.
"Dancing with Matisse' Digital Limited Edition Print. Tide Line 2020
"A Day at the Beach' Digital Limited Edition Print. Tide Line 2020. Available 
"Bay of the Dammed' Digital Limited Edition Print. Tide Line 2020. Available
Digital Limited Edition Print. Tide Line 2020. Available