The Australian Landscape
Essay
The Australian landscape stills exerts a power over contemporary art due to the fact the Australian land is so different to other landscapes in the world. Some of the different distinctive qualities of the Australian landscape that motivate artists are its harsh light, baren, dry lands and then the beautiful coastlines. Many artists have been drawn to the Australian landscape due to its intreging landscape.
Artists such as John Olsen and Elisabeth Cummings are both drawn to painting the Australian landscape because of its extreme environment. John Olsen works include Five bells 1963 which is a painting that consits of many lines and cool colours such as blues and greens and yellows. His style is like he is drawing with paint and his painting is about a celebration of life on the water. Olsen stated that ‘I brushed a line around the core theme, the seed-burst, the life-burst, the sea-harbour, the source of liffe. Inside and around this core, I painted images drawn from metaphorsand similes in Slessors poem of our habour city, and from my own emotional and physical involvement with the harbour’ this comment shows that Olsen was inspired by the harbour for his artwork as he feels he belongs there. Growing up on the water inspired Olsens lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour began. By the 1960’s his talent and originallity was becoming widely recognised. He began painting the bush as a vivid and joyous place full of life. This series You Beaut Country was very popular due to the fact it wasn’t a stereotypical view of the landscape. This series was very much inspired by the Australian landscape and Olsen became a more and more recognised artist. Olsen’s paintings start at a point that is the beginning of a“story” and he eventually branches off and may expand so much that the painting becomes bigger than the original story itself, this shows that Olsen see a landscape and creates a story to go with it and when he decides to paint this story he ends up
The Australian landscape stills exerts a power over contemporary art due to the fact the Australian land is so different to other landscapes in the world. Some of the different distinctive qualities of the Australian landscape that motivate artists are its harsh light, baren, dry lands and then the beautiful coastlines. Many artists have been drawn to the Australian landscape due to its intreging landscape.
Artists such as John Olsen and Elisabeth Cummings are both drawn to painting the Australian landscape because of its extreme environment. John Olsen works include Five bells 1963 which is a painting that consits of many lines and cool colours such as blues and greens and yellows. His style is like he is drawing with paint and his painting is about a celebration of life on the water. Olsen stated that ‘I brushed a line around the core theme, the seed-burst, the life-burst, the sea-harbour, the source of liffe. Inside and around this core, I painted images drawn from metaphorsand similes in Slessors poem of our habour city, and from my own emotional and physical involvement with the harbour’ this comment shows that Olsen was inspired by the harbour for his artwork as he feels he belongs there. Growing up on the water inspired Olsens lifelong fascination with Sydney Harbour began. By the 1960’s his talent and originallity was becoming widely recognised. He began painting the bush as a vivid and joyous place full of life. This series You Beaut Country was very popular due to the fact it wasn’t a stereotypical view of the landscape. This series was very much inspired by the Australian landscape and Olsen became a more and more recognised artist. Olsen’s paintings start at a point that is the beginning of a“story” and he eventually branches off and may expand so much that the painting becomes bigger than the original story itself, this shows that Olsen see a landscape and creates a story to go with it and when he decides to paint this story he ends up