Womerah Lane: Lives and Landscapes

by Tom Carment

Thirty years in the making, Womerah Lane is a collection of stories, paintings and drawings that cover the period Tom Carment has lived in the inner-city suburb of Darlinghurst while travelling the country as a plein air artist. Carment writes as he paints – from life – capturing the likeness of a particular place in time, or the moment when he sees something striking or strange. His paintings and drawings are small, limited by what he can carry with him on his travels. In his writing too he is a miniaturist working on a large scale. It is Carment’s quiet determination to capture life as it passes, across all corners of the country, that makes this collection unique.

Genres: Art

261 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2019

About the author

Tom Carment has painted landscapes, still lifes and portraits since the early 1970s. He is the author of Days and Nights in Africa (1985), Seven Walks: Cape Leeuwin to Bundeena (2014) and Womerah Lane: Lives and Landscapes (2019).

Reviews

[Ron Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom Carment is an Australian artist, many time entrant in the Archibald. Woomerah Lane is a small laneway in Darlinghurst, it is where Carment lives. This book is a collection of stories from his life of over sixty years as an artist. The scenes he has painted, the people he has met and the incidents that have filled his life. Throughout the book there are examples of his art. He writes like he paints, quiet, subtle, observational and modest. He has travelled Australia as a plein air artist in the manner of a 19th-century French Impressionists style of painting outdoors.
Several of his stories interested me personally.
I have read most of Gillian Mears’ novels and short stories. I had also followed reprts of her life, especially her illness. Not long before she died she did a lengthy interview with Phillip Adams. With this in mind it was fascinating read about Tom Carment’s extended relationship with Ms Mears. His writing confirms to me that she was a troubled but beautiful person.
Some months ago I had read a review of Helen Ennis’ biography of Olive Cotton. She was an accomplished photographer who had been married to Max Dupain. She had gained far less publicity and acknowledgement than Dupain. So “Olive’s Studio” is an account of Carment and Sally McInerney, Cotton’s daughter, cleaning out her studio. A touching account of a talented lady.
Early in the book there is an account of him and friends bush walking when they come across a goanna with a tin of cat food stuck on its head.
Carment’s final story is of his Japanese POW father. Reading between the lines you get the impression that their father/son relationship had been bumpy. Nevertheless it appears in his last years father opened up more to his son, especially about his war experiences. Carment’s account of his father’s Anzac Day march is caring and moving.
Carment has a couple of stories about the dangers of setting up yourself to paint a landscape, attacks by the elements, inquisitive passersby and suspicious police officers.
This is a wonderful book that I would highly recommend. Target audience? Middle age to older Australian males. It is sort of holding up a mirror to those individuals.
A delightful read.

[Sue Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always been drawn to Tom Carment’s art. I picked up a small postcard of a watercolour landscape with a gate from the SH Ervin Gallery years ago and it has remained a fixture on my studio wall. I have 2 catalogues CH2 & 600 days that I treasure. I borrowed this book from my library but loved it so much I purchased a copy to read again. It feels like my painting journey or a trip with a friend. His writing is as adept as his capture of people, places and things. My problem now is that I desperately want his book about Bundeena.....yet another for the bulging bookshelf.

[Anne-Maree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was delighted to get my hands on this book. Tom's drawings and paintings have always been close to my ways of seeing the world about me. When he began adding short texts to his paintings at exhibitions, this offered another layer to my appreciation of his life and work. Tom Carment paints and talks about places I know well, streets and places my friends have lived in, beaches, towns and roads I have also driven or hitch hiked (in my youth). He also covers parts of the country I have never been, but would love to see.

I made this book last, like a much needed road trip, and I wanted to just keep going. It kept me company during the time of isolation and enforced distance from family and dear friends. I was able to wander in place and time, and muse and remember things about Sydney and other locations. To think about beetroots and typewriters, to gaze at portraits and listen to Tom's thoughts about the process of making art, opened up another doorway into the world of ideas, big, small and in between.

[Suzanne Knight · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love love love! My favourite read of 2021. I’m a huge fan of his paintings and drawings too and so this book was as much about the artistic process for me as it was about the stories.

[Robyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful book that I absolutely loved.