AS Lucas Grogan gazes at a decade of his work gradually being hung on the walls of Maitland Regional Art Gallery, I ask him to respond to what he's looking at.
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"F - - k, I've wasted a lot of time on this shit!," he blurts out.
Given this is his first solo exhibition in a public gallery, and in the city of his childhood, that reaction comes as a surprise. Then again, Lucas Grogan likes to surprise.
"Is it really a waste of time?," I ask.
He shrugs and smiles, as he replies.
"Keeps me busy. Keeps me in trouble."
A couple of things about Lucas Grogan.
He liberally uses blue, not just in the art he creates but also in his conversations. And how he speaks is often what he paints.
His meticulously created paintings and textile art are often spiced with naughty words, which can shock and awe, or, at least, create an explosion of giggles. So if you are easily offended, best to just look at the fine lines rather than try to read between them.
The second thing is that Lucas Grogan doesn't so much wear his heart on his sleeve but in his art. Who he is and what he's done in life feed what he creates.
So in a Lucas Grogan work, you will see beauty and fragility, profanity and pain, humour and hubris, all swimming in a sea of blue. Especially the colour "Grojean blue", Grogan's arty tongue-in-cheek reference to his surname.
"The Grojean tsunami has hit - finally!," Grogan says.
The tsunami has been building for years. Born in 1984, Lucas Grogan grew up in East Maitland, one of seven kids. As a boy, he knew he wanted to be an artist, and he hoped that art would carry him out of the river city. His hopes and desires were met.
After dropping out of an art course at the University of Newcastle, Grogan worked in public and commercial galleries, learning about the industry, while pursuing his own work. In his early 20s, Grogan moved to Melbourne.
From there, his art made its way out into the world, and he travelled the globe, before shifting to Newcastle.
Now Lucas Grogan's art has brought him back to Maitland. The city is hosting a survey for an artist described by gallery coordinator Kattie Bugeja as "a Maitland boy made good".
Grogan is "a signifcant contemporary artist who deserves to be seen in a leading regional gallery," Bugeja says.
The exhibition is titled "Long Story Short". It features more than 30 works.
In paint and fabrics, it is the long and colourful story of Lucas Grogan, as he has grown in popularity as an artist, and matured as a human being, from 2010 to now.
He is delighted by this survey - "A lot of artists don't get this. I'm so lucky" - and he is even more "stoked" that it is occurring in Maitland.
"I'm thrilled to show my hometown what I've been up to, especially my family," he says. His father, Michael, has been a regular visitor as the exhibition has been taking shape, and his six siblings and their families are coming along to see what Lucas has been up to.
"I've already had some people who I went to school with come through, and it's, 'Woah! A blast from the past!'."
The exhibition also reunites Grogan with some works he hasn't seen in years. For the first time, a series of paintings titled "A Library" are being exhibited together.
So one wall features a long painted bookcase packed with titles that say a lot about Lucas Grogan and his witty, often acerbic, observations of life. From 50 Shades of Blue to The Gospel According to Lucas Grogan, there's a book to please, or to offend, everyone in those paintings.
"It just reminds me, f - - k I'm funny sometimes," Grogan says while scaning the painted volumes.
"What about the rest of the time?"
"Miserable!"
As well as works from private and public collections, the exhibition features three large murals that Grogan has been painting on the gallery's walls.
Lucas Grogan has become renowned for his murals, being commissioned to paint internationally. But creating these three murals in his hometown gallery has been a comfortable experience.
"It's a pleasure, because I'm not getting rained on, it's not 10,000 degrees, I'm not freezing to death, the floor is even, I'm not standing on rocks and gravel and sand," he says.
Read more: Breaking Bread: Profile of Lucas Grogan
"So an air conditioned environment? Bloody ideal."
Kattie Bugeja is aware that comfort is not something that everyone will experience when they look at "Long Story Short".
She says the gallery, and exhibition, is designed to not only engage and delight, but also to educate and challenge. Bugeja believes Grogan's work will do all of that for visitors.
"It's raw and it's real and it's humorous, and I think it will connect with audiences," Bugeja says.
In one painting, Grogan recounts a conversation he once had with a curator. In the process, he makes fun of how many look for the profound in art:
"A CURATOR ASKED, 'SO WHAT'S YOUR WORK ABOUT?' I SAID, 'I'M JUST TRYING TO GET PEOPLE TO LIKE ME, AND TELL ME I'M WORTH SOMETHING'. SHE SAID, 'NO. REALLY, WHAT'S IT ABOUT?' I SAID, 'OH, UM, CLIMATE CHANGE AND POST-COLONIALISM'."
So with this exhibition, is Lucas Grogan hoping he gets the hometown crowd to like him?
"No, I hope they go, 'Oh yeah, I've never seen his work'," he responds. "I hope that's more of the approach. I hope they go, 'Oh right, I've never heard of this guy'. Sort of stumble upon me. 'Oh, he's local? Yeah, cool'.
"I just want people to go, 'Woah!'."
- Lucas Grogan. "Long Story Short". Maitland Regional Art Gallery, until May 17.
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