Tom Roberts – Icon

The Australian bush has its own unique light; a natural glow that pierces through the Eucalypt branches and radiates across the land. An artist who recognised this beauty, and consciously immersed himself in these images of the outback was Tom Roberts. He was a creative who captured the vast perimeters of rural living and the [...]

By | November 23rd, 2016|Art & Art history, Australian pastoral history|0 Comments

My Harvest Home-How moving to Tasmania led to the disappearance of an artist

In 1814, a landscape work, exhibited at the Paris Salon, won John Glover a gold medal from Louis XVIII. In 1821, a leading European art magazine noted that "as a landscape painter he stands in the first rank of British artists". This was certainly the case based on earnings as Glover was second only to [...]

By | November 7th, 2016|Art & Art history|0 Comments

Ned Kelly – Sidney Nolan style

Sidney Nolan is one of Australia’s most beloved artists, well known for his depictions of outback Australia and the bush way of life. He captured brief snippets of our country’s history, recollected on canvas in bold and bright colours for all eyes to see. He painted the most intriguing Australian characters, from notorious bushrangers to [...]

By | October 19th, 2016|Art & Art history, Australian pastoral history|0 Comments

Margaret Preston – Inspired by the Australian Bush

Influential artist, Margaret Preston loved stalking around the Australian bush. She left a great impression on the Australian art scene, and was both a talented early modernist artist, and a provocative writer, passionate about giving Australian art its own identity. With both her art and her writing, Margaret Preston pushed the boundaries, and wasn’t someone [...]

Bringing soaring pillars to life: Hans Heysen

Hans Heysen: When we envisage the Australian bush, a vision of the iconic gum tree instantly comes to mind. Throughout history many artists have painted these quintessentially Australian trees, but I don’t believe anyone has mastered it quite as meticulously as Australian landscape artist Hans Heysen. He brought these soaring pillars to life with watercolour [...]

Arthur Streeton – a landscape master

Looking back through the rich history of Australian art, we come to one of our country’s most famous landscape artists, Arthur Streeton. Bringing something a little different to the Australian art scene, he had a brilliant ability to inject light and space into his work, creating paintings that captured the true essence of the Australian [...]

Aboriginal Scar Trees

Aboriginal scar trees. You may well have driven, rode or hiked past one of these woody plants without even noticing. These trees are different from other tree scars caused by naturally occurring phenomenon such as bush fires and lightning as they’re man-made and invariably many decades old. Once extremely common, Aboriginal scar trees have been [...]

Albert Namatjira – a man between two worlds

If you’ve read my novel, Wild Lands, you’re familiar with Bronzewing, one of the lead characters. He’s a young white man, raised in an Aboriginal community, schooled by an early settler family. He was a man between two worlds. In Alice Springs in the mid 1900s, Aboriginal artist Albert Namatjira experienced this same disjuncture between [...]

By | September 26th, 2016|Art & Art history, Blog, Inspiration|1 Comment

Arthur Boyd – An artist with a conscience

Looking back at Australian history, it’s humbling to know that an individual like artist Arthur Boyd existed. He was one of those unique people who fought to expose the social injustices within our society and through his art, built a strong platform to share his views. In the late 20th century he was one of [...]

By | September 26th, 2016|Art & Art history, Blog, Inspiration|0 Comments
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