When I ask Rob Howe what he has been looking at I expect painters but he instead recommends poets and musicians. He describes his own paintings as romantic (like a pop song might be), pointing to the Talking Heads track referred to in the show title, This Must Be the Place. The new collection of paintings does echo some unexpected shifts in circumstance and domestic responsibility. Viewed as a collection, there is a sense of an artist re-defining what home is through uncertainty and inquiry, having moved with family to around ten different places over the time the works were made. Rob Howe says,

 “(These) are sacred places that have been stolen and occupied. I often think about that as I work and play in it ... share the same place for a minute or two. I don't know all of what has gone on here, and as a white fella I'm often not exactly sure of my place. I need to listen more to find out. So, this is a modest attempt at listening by looking.”

 A new colour language has emerged. From a base of phthalo and white there is a modulated, green-tinged blue that comprehends the brightness of the sky along the south coast. It also hits just right in the painted fibro of Turquoise House and is picked up in other works through clouds or the edge of a railing. This phthalo blue is most clearly employed in a glorious painting Corrimal Iron Bark, where it finds the high contrast of bursting foliage against a rough, contrasting trunk.

 There are formal rhythms to find as well. The abstracted horizontal fade of roads and pathways brings poise to structures, offering a balance of clarity and evocation. Several works have a central element like a house, a significant tree or a figure, but they remain un‑staged in presentation, with tertiary elements noted incidentally. In the case of paintings with figures, like Front Balcony or Marion, Rob Howe sees the opportunity of a particular light and will then deliver a family member into the frame. It is the potential of the place that makes the moment rather than an organised portrait sitting.

 “Home is where I want to be but I guess I'm already there..." Talking Heads begin their song with a line that suggests a journey taken in order to make a return. Rob Howe’s paintings document a fragmented journey that finds and then redefines a broader and now shifted sense of home and life.

 -Melody Willis