Undercoat: Poems about Paintings

The poems in Undercoat contemplate painting as process, painting as storytelling, painting as mystery – visual art transfigured through the precision of a poet’s ear.

The work is notable for vivid descriptions and adroit conjurings of texture and colour. There’s also a vein of old-school Australiana – shandies, black-and-white TVs, laminex tables. The writing is by turns lyrical, rackety, elegiac. Permeating the collection is a warm humour and a deep respect for all things: ‘Even horses deserve memorial. Even stones.’