‘Hotel California’

130 x 85cm
Oil on Canvas, rope and carabiners
Hotel California
This work is a reflection on stillness, memory, and the quiet intimacy between climber and landscape. Depicting a figure rappelling from Hotel California-a 300m exposed multi pitch route in the Blue Mountains-the piece captures a suspended moment of retreat.
Hotel California is etched into the vertical sandstone cliffs of the Pierces pass.
Rappelling is not the climax of a climb, but a moment of reflection-hands controlling the rope, body weight balanced in air. In this space, movement slows, and the surrounding air becomes palpable.
The minimal composition and matt blue surface mimic the stillness and isolation felt mid-air-between rock and ground, between exertion and release. The rope, a literal and symbolic lifeline, divides the canvas vertically, anchoring the figure while also emphasizing the fragility of suspension. The materials alongside the painting-coiled rope, quickdraws, and carabiners— serve as evidence of experience, proof of a temporary presence etched into the wall.
This work explores how the landscape holds us, not just physically but emotionally. The Blue Mountains, with their sheer faces and sharp rock, become both canvas and companion. I aim to translate the act of descending not as an end, but as an extension of the climb-a space of surrender, trust, and connection to the land that shapes how i move, feel, and remember the climb.