Womerah Lane

- Blurb -

TomCarment's writing, like his art, seduces quietly: austere, highly articulate,always fresh, with a dry sense of the absurd. In this calm, modest register hecommands great territories. Helen GarnerThiscollection of Tom Carment's stories about people and landscapes has been thirtyyears in the making. It covers the period that he has lived in Womerah Lane inthe inner-city Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst, while travelling the country as aplein air artist. Womerah Lane is composed of writtenpieces set in every state of mainland Australia, accompanied by paintings anddrawings made in those places.Carment is one of Australia's best-known plein air artists. It is his distinctive mark as a writer that hewrites as he paints - from life - capturing the likeness of a particular placein time, remaining faithful to the moment when he sees something striking orstrange. And just as his paintings and drawings are small, limited by what hecan carry with him on his travels, so in his writing he is a miniaturistworking on a large scale: the tone of his writing matches the style of hisbrushwork - free-flowing yet nuanced, it evokes the places he visits and thepeople and objects he encounters, friends and strangers, the homeless and thefamous - farms, beaches, cottages, building sites, even typewriters and eggsand telegraph poles - each has its story.Carment is highly accomplished as both a writer and an artist, and thiscombination, together with his quiet determination to capture the moment beforeit passes, in writing and in art, is what makes Womerah Lane unique among Australian books.