Courier Mail, Nov 2, 2011

In case you can't read this (probably not!!) I shall take an ego trip and copy it out. It's nice to hear back one's one thoughts and words. Written by Fiona Purdon.
Being caught in January's 'inland tsunami' has had a lasting effect on one Brisbane artist, writes Fiona Purdon
Artist Kath Hastings thought she was going to die when she was stuck in her car surrounded by fast flowing water during the Toowoomba floods in January.
Hastings, who is from Brisbane but was attending an art course in Toowoomba, eventually made it home safely.
She was so traumatised by her experience and by watching the news of the Grantham tragedy that she was driven to paint the scenes.
The Her Beauty and Her Terror exhibition of 21 paintings, including several depicting the Queensland floods, will be held at the Art discount Warehouse, 34 Arthur St, Fortitude Valley, over six days from November 11.
"I remember the teeming rain, it was pelting down...the roads were impassable," Hastings says. "There were huge waves of water and cars were being tossed.
I was in a state of complete panic. I came home watched the whole tragedy unfolding at Grantham on the news and was deeply affected."
The 68-year-old artist refers to masterpieces from Goya, Picasso, Van Gogh and Japanese printmaker Hokida in her works, which are accompanied by text, "so people can see where I am coming from".
Hastings has drawn on Greek, biblical and Scottish myths to help her decipher the flood scenes she witnessed and saw on television, using her trademake bright colours.
Several paintings feature mythical horses - kelpies - which according to Scottish legend lured victims to water and drowned them. Hastings saw images of horses trapped by the rising water, horses that suffered violent deaths. She has also painted the Greek mythical figures Icarus, who died after flying too close to the sun, and Demeter, the goddess of the cycle of life, to reinforce her theme that man cannot tame nature.
Hastings loved to paint when she was a child, but did not start seriously until 1990 when she had recovered from breast cancer.
She gained qualifications in art from TAFE and Monash University an started painting full time after retiring from teaching in 1998.
Hastings says it has been cathartic to paint the flood scenes and she hopes her work will help the community to heal.
"I have suffered from depression which was exacerbated by cancer, but for the past 10 years painting has been so therapeutic...it is a release for my passion and creativity," she says. "My paintings are an emotional response to something I've seen."
Hastings has had five solo shows and hopes to bring this exhibition to regional galleries . She says profits will go to the Grantham community flood fund.
"I hope people who have suffered get something out of my work" she ways
"Media stories come and go and people do forget.
"I wanted to make some permanency with paint and to give stories of hope."
Photo caption: Images of hope: Artist Kath Hastings with her work.

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