It’s easy to enjoy Bert’s abstract paintings. Just follow a shape or a color as it moves across the surface. Every now and then allow yourself to focus on a smaller or larger are.
Realise that there’s no right or wrong in what your mind perceives as a ‘thing’. One person might see a face, another person will see a train rounding a bend.
The key to appreciating work like this is based in a term Pareidolia.
Once you understand that his art is both totally abstract and comes from the mind of a complete and utter lunatic then you are free to enjoy it.
Dimensions: 60x90cm
Painted: 2018
Materials: Acrylic and enamel on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Alien Jungle 2
In 2018 I got lost again and wandered into an alien jungle. This time it was while walking in the forest around Mount Dandenong. Again it was a subtle change in the scenery – the occasional appearance of a brightly colored plant that got me curious, wanting to continue down the path.
The path rounded a corner, and a beautiful view was revealed. Before my eyes, in the middle of an alien jungle was a clearing with a small lake at its center. Under the purple-tinged sunshine, several hundred of many species of strange creatures were enjoying themselves. A group of what can only be described as iridescent lizard-like gorillas had fired up a gas-powered barbeque and were standing around drinking cans of beer. Peach colored feathered seal aliens were flinging themselves into the dark blue waters of the lake from a rope suspended from a large overhanging tree.
I was having trouble taking in the sheer weirdness of it when a sizeable red-colored fish with arms and legs came riding out on a mountain bike from a path near to where I was standing. It stopped and shouted, “Hey Bert, how’s it goin’ dude?”
Out of fear that I was losing my mind, I turned and ran back to the safety and normalcy of planet Earth. I quickly started on another abstract expressionist work to explain what I saw.
Bert Ernie
Detail views of abstract painting Alien Jungle 2
