By Jay Scott Kanes

Derek Erskine, a 34-year-old Australian artist, actor and film director, has compiled a seemingly miles-long list of creative deeds.

Each endeavor brings unique satisfactions. “Acting’s more emotional, film-making’s more intellectual and art’s more from the heart. That’s how I see it,” Erskine said.

“The art’s my soul, my heart. It’s about love and beauty. My films are darker and more political. In art, I use my hands to create things people may like. Yet somehow, it’s all one creative enterprise using different mediums and subjects.”

With several thousand paintings already to his credit, Erskine visited Hong Kong for the first time to participate in OzArt 2007, an exhibition of Australian art until May 9 at the Fringe Club in the Central business district. The event also features two other artists: aboriginal David Dryden and flamboyant David Conolan. On May 5 and 6, OzArt expands to the Bridge Room at the Aberdeen Boat Club on Hong Kong Island.

Erskine and his girlfriend Michelle Page lived temporarily on Hong Kong’s outlying Lamma Island. “That’s another world from the city. It’s terrific,” Erskine said.

Even before arriving, he created Lamma Island Love, a painting (priced at HK$7,500) to convey joy and eager anticipation. Now he plans dozens more. “I’ll do a series of 20 paintings about Hong Kong nightlife, a series of cityscapes and another depicting Lamma, its alleyways, boats and ferries, all in my abstract style,” he said. “We’re talking significant paintings of four metres by three metres, not little ones. I’ll also express my feelings about Hong Kong and its people in a series of scroll paintings.”

A global market waits. “One thing I realize now about Hong Kong is that most people don’t have a lot of wall space,” Erskine said. “Even the public buildings don’t have much art. In Melbourne, paintings hang in nearly every building. Hong Kong’s more about food, lifestyle and work. It’s very efficient, but less focused on aesthetics and art.”

With simple forms and precise execution, Erskine captures diverse moods, often in charcoal or acrylic abstracts. He describes his style, with its abstract shapes and big impact, as “free expressionism”. It liberates him from conceptual, intellectual or philosophical constraints.

“My work represents love, devotion and inspiration,” Erskine said. “I’m inspired by life in itself, its fun, its simplicity. I’m guided by an unbiased, free energy. It’s about color and balance, art for beauty’s sake and for the people. Art should never be elitist. The idea is to capture inner feelings, not external ones, to bring alive something from within, not to copy from the outside.”

Erskine stays busy and works hard. “I aspire to new things all the time,” he said. He stars in four feature-length films and many stage productions. The movie credits include: Space Pimp, a futuristic tale of crime and drug abuse; The Cyclamen Man, a Viking war epic set in the 9th century; A Small World, a US production; and Learning to Live With Nothing, about an alcoholic gambler. He’s busy on a new movie, one he wrote, The Man at the End of the World, about a brainwashed assassin.

Originally from Scotland, Erskine moved to Tasmania and later to Olinda in the Dandenong Ranges, about 45 minutes from downtown Melbourne. He began to paint as a drama student at the University of Tasmania. Despite poor grades, he earned the school’s prestigious Mount Nelson Award for his art, acting and contribution to university life.

Erskine’s artwork has appeared across Australia, plus in Barcelona, Berlin, Istanbul, Lisbon, Miami, New York, Vancouver and elsewhere.

“I’ve done a range of paintings about funky world cities, like Amsterdam, Tokyo, San Francisco and London,” he said. Next in his studio comes plenty of Hong Kong.

Visitors are welcome at the OzArt exhibition. Admission is free.

ARCHIVES

At the Fringe Club Gallery, Derek Erskine
highlights one of his creations.


Erskine confers with Australia consul-general
Murray Cobban (right) at the OzArt exhibition.


Artistic humor: Erskine (left) jokes with fellow
artist David Conolan and David's wife Deb.


Lamma Island Love for sale -- the image
conveys Erskine's eagerness to visit.