Looking-into-Leichhardt_catalogue_Oct2013_Gannon+friends

BILL GANNON

This project has taken me many miles in retracing Leichhardt’s 1844-45 trek, reading his diaries and journals, and imagining his twists and turns. I have valued that journey and the many interesting people, landscapes, and thoughts along the way. My fieldwork is mostly pencil and ink on heavy watercolour paper. Over the years required to follow the length of the overland expedition, I made hundreds of field sketches. I then prepared 15 studio oil paintings on board that correlate to the 15 month journey. Some of my works were consciously influenced by the German Romantics, notably Casper David Friedrich (1774-1840). Each painting and its title depict a key event or thought for that month of the expedition. They show landforms, waterways, biology, and skies of that part of the journey. The themes are universal and enduring – hope, collaboration, struggle, loss, grief and recommencement.

www.billgannonartist.com.au

Landscape at the Coburg Peninsula 29 x 42 cm pencil and ink on watercolour paper 2012

Leichhardt's 1844-45 route 2011 ReconnaisanceTrip 2012-13Trip

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