It’s a warm sunny day at the beach; you can smell the sea salt air and feel the sand between your toes.
No matter the image that comes to mind, the beach evokes different memories for everyone, and some of these memories will be on display at the Like Yesterday exhibition at Caboolture Regional Art Gallery, opening this month.
The exhibition features works by Brisbane-born artist Robert Brownhall, who seeks out landscapes that are rarely celebrated or often overlooked.
“I have so many great individual beach memories that they all merge into one big beautiful lifetime story,” Robot said.
His oil-on-linen artwork titled Night Beach is a night scene overlooking the bay from Redcliffe towards the lights of Fisherman Islands.
From Fear of Water to Lifelong Connection
Robert has painted many scenes like this before, as he has always been drawn to the subject of distant lights shining across water. But Night Beach isn’t just distant pretty lights and water – it reflects something much deeper for Robert.
“I have had a long relationship with water, but a dramatic near-death accident began it all,” he said. “When I was three, I was revived from drowning in Bundaberg. I then developed a strong phobia of the water.
“This went on for many years until my parents took me to the beach one day, a long way from Bundaberg. The water was shining, and it was blue and white, not murky like the creek I drowned in, and it was all moving and surging. As I stared at it, I began to think that maybe I could take on my phobia.”
Encouraged by his dad, Robert got on his first surfboard and took on the waves at Kawana and Alexandra Headland, where he fell in love with the ocean.
“Every time I stood above the water and raced along the wave face, I felt triumphant over the day the water drowned me,” he said.
“Whenever I came out of the cold water and stood in the sun drying off, I could remember the way it felt to be revived in the warm sunshine.”
Forty years later, Robert said he is still hooked.
Like Yesterday examines personal relationships with the beach through the lens of nostalgia, questioning the sense of loss and longing that accompany our seaside memories.
Like Yesterday
- Saturday, 28 March – Saturday, 13 June
- Caboolture Regional Art Gallery
- 4 Hasking Street, Caboolture
Read more stories from The Caboolture Guide print magazine here:
- Caboolture Connect: Updates from the Community
- What’s Hot Around Town
- Podcast Review: Pop Culture Parenting
- The French Film Festival Brisbane
- How Healthy is Your Home Loan?
- Queenfish Scomberoides commersonnianus
- Organic Gardening in March
- Free, Cheap and Local!
- Happitat Brings High-Altitude Thrills to Gold Coast Hinterland
- When Allergies Rewrite a Family’s Story
- Backing Their Buddy
- Chamber Chat
- Food Fest Brings Flavour and Fun to Caboolture Showgrounds
- The Dellit Family and the Legacy of Riverview Hospital
- Schools Unite to Build Future Workforce Pathways
- Plant, Grow and Connect
- Finding the Right Path
- SpiritFest Returns to Caboolture Historical Village
- Local Sporting Facilities Set for Major Upgrades
