Bali 1977

This is a look back in time, to my 1977 trip to the Indonesian island of Bali. There I met up with Australian writer and poet John Darling, who introduced me to the painter I Gusti Nyoman Lempad and his son, Sumung; as well as - by association - other painters such as Wayan Radjin, his father Djata and student Murtika ... and the Australian painter Donald Friend.

On Bali I met Leesa, who became the mother of my three children; we named our first-born - in 1978 - Radjin (a.k.a. Rad). Together with his brother Yani, the two run Unity Gym in North Sydney.

For this trip I used two Leica M4 cameras, with 21mm, 35mm, 50mm Noctilux and 90mm lenses, and TRI X film.

This is the 'home' on Bali - a hut I rented from Sumung - where I lived for about four months, at the time when I met Leesa.

the painter I Gusti Nyoman Lempad, his wife and his son, Sumung

Lempad was about 115 years of age

painting by Lempad

Lempad's and Sumung's family in Ubud in 1977

some of Lempad's art-works, stone and wood carvings; the mainstay of his oeuvre, though, is painting and drawing

the stone carver Cemul

Cemul with one of his daughters

Cemul's family, Ubud, Bali in 1977

the painter I Wayan Radjin of Batuan, Bali, Indonesia Radjin is attributed - together with his father I Made Djata - the development of the romantic Batuan style of painting, which derives from the ink-and-paper media of the 1930s, pioneered by Walter Spies; Radjin had created his own art school, where one student was Murtika (see below); Radjin told me that he completes about six paintings a year, i.e. one every 2 months, working on them for about 2 hours in the morning and again 2 hours in the evening. We named our first born son Radjin ... now widely know as Rad

painting by Radjin

I Made Djata, member of the Pita Maha movement, has functioned for years as Batuan's in-house drawing master; he was Radjin's father, mentor and teacher