Responding to a brief to paint an ‘Australian landscape’ I started with a scene of my son playing with a collie dog beside the river, beneath gumtrees. It was idyllic, calm, and uncomfortably reminiscent of early colonial art. Despite the river gums I realised that unconsciously I had brought an English sensibility to my rendition of the scene. It was one-sided, without substance, all ‘surface’.
It’s a big task to try to depict the complexities and beauty of this land. I felt I couldn’t adequately attempt this without somehow acknowledging our history and the people who have had such an impact upon it, both good and bad. I needed to paint below the surface, to express more about our bloody and unresolved history and ongoing troubles. It is a stunningly beautiful country but the many peoples who live in and love this land are still travelling uneasy parallel paths with no real resolution to the past.
