When Phil Meatchem first saw Morning of the Earth in 1972 he was a longhaired teenager who idolised Terry Fitzgerald and loved to draw. Eventually the surf-mad kid from Manly would go on to become an acclaimed painter. On several occasions Phil has made the finals for the distinguished Archibald Prize. Despite his embrace of artistic ambitions, Phil never lost his love for surfing. Over the years he has continued to draw caricatures of famous surfers and lineups for Tracks.
More recently, Phil rekindled his love affair for the film Morning of the Earth. Only this time he decided to use his paintbrush to re-recreate 20 iconic moments to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Albe Falzon’s and David Elphick’s seminal film. “I’ve always said, every frame is a beautiful painting,” insists Phil.
Phil will be exhibiting all 20 pieces of art at The Created For Life Gallery in Long Jetty this Saturday the 28th May.
Below he discusses the muse and the motivation behind the exhibition.
What inspired you to do an exhibition around Morning of the Earth?
The film has just got such great light, I don’t know what it is about, whether it’s the film stock, or whether it’s just the locations or the era. But it’s just got amazing light. And it just lends itself to being treated as paintings. It reminds me of the Romanticism type era or impressionist type painting styles, you know, in a modern sort of way. Even now, it’s 50 years old, and still has a sort of a current feel about it. I had the idea years ago. I thought it’d be a good idea to do an exhibition from little slices from the film … With the 50th anniversary it sort of came back around, so I couldn’t pass it up.
How did you decide what to paint in a film with so many immortalised moments, which ones to paint?
… I just selected little moments that I thought were important and that I loved. You know, I love the Baddie Angourie section and the music that goes with it. I love that sequence. And so I had to do Baddy, there’s a few Baddies I did him shaping and all that.
My first new board was a Native surfboard by Baddy.
We used to go and chat with Baddy all the time at Manly. And we were just wide-eyed kids, you know, and we’d be stoked and he’d shape us custom boards. I can still describe every one of them. You know, we had a thing me and my mate with Native and Baddy.
So I thought of significant moments, you needed to have. You needed to have the Uluwatu walk out (with Steve Cooney and Rusty Miller). You needed to have the MP cutback. You know, I did those first and covered them off. And then afterwards, I just went through the film and just thought ‘that’s a nice shot’. I would just freeze and store them on my phone and think, ‘I’ll get to that one’. You know – Playing the recorder in the bush. That’s a good one.
I could have gone on forever. I actually wanted to do more. But Damo (Tracks head of marketing) said no, 20 is enough. You have to stop there.
What practical process did you use to do the paintings?
I bought the remastered high res film. And I was just scrolling through and freezing the moment that I wanted that I thought would work. I’d just store that in my phone. I’d transfer it over to an iPad that I used to paint from and I can blow up sections with. I just had the soundtrack going and I just loved those couple of months painting away.
I guess the Impressionistic style you’ve used, it helps immortalise those moments?
Yeah, it’s just like I said. Impressionist art was all about, you know, Monet was all about light and colour, and mood. And that film is crying out for that treatment. It’s the same thing in the film, you know, it’s just the light and the colour and the tone of it all. It’s just got such a quality about it. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s the film grain or whatever. It’s like it’s like an old James Bond movie. There’s something about it.
As Australians, we struggle to find things that we can actually attribute classic status to, and to really celebrate as cultural touch points. It’s not like we’re in Italy or France and we have all this history to celebrate, aside from our Indigenous history. But we have Morning of the Earth. I guess, from an Australian perspective, it’s a contribution that’s worth celebrating.
For sure. You know what I keep saying to people, it’s a vibe. I had a little gathering with all my old mates not long ago, because one of them passed away. And we all got together in Newcastle and we were talking about it all and one of them said, “Yeah, we were there”. You know, and I thought shit yeah, that was right. Watching the film makes you want to sit on the grass like we used to and eat watermelon and fix up the ding on your old 7’0” single fin. And smell that freaking purple wax we used to buy, whatever that was called. Honey wax came a bit later. But just the film makes you want to do that. Because we did those North Coast trips. We did Angourie, you know, lots of kids were doing that. You know, we’d drive up in the back of a bloody Land Rover with no seats in the back. Yeah.
I guess when people look at the art you want to inspire a sort of nostalgic, pining for the past?
Especially with paintings, you know, people see them as pictures. If they look at them online, it’s just a picture really. When you see paintings, when you go to a gallery to see paintings hanging on the wall, it’s like you watch the artist’s thoughts and strokes and you can see all that in the paint. And that’s a big deal. You’ve got Morning of the Earth, you’ve got the image and then on top of that you’ve got an artist’s eye on it. A Treatment. Another angle.
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