Past and Future Landscape Oil on linen 60 x 110 cm
I deliberated for ages trying to think of a title for the new painting above. I finally decided upon Past and Future Landscape. When I was painting it I was thinking about so many aspects of landscape, Earthly and not, and coming up with a title that encapsulated it all was very difficult. But, from previous experience... the simpler the title, the more open ended, less descriptive and didactic it can be. This means the viewer can more easily trip down their own imagination's pathways! So much more satisfying for all.
MOUNTAIN RANGES - BUNYA MTS AND CUNNINGHAM'S GAP
The mountain ranges remind me of the Bunya Mts and Cunningham's Gap, both sections of the Great Dividing Range which snakes down the eastern side of Australia. I grew up on my parents grain farm with the Bunya Mts cutting a majestic silhouette against an eastern horizon, whereas the west offered a flat relentless horizon which often disappeared into watery mirages. The contrast between the two horizons intrigued me. [See the flat western horizon in the photo Pirrinuan Siding below. Photography Wilfred Brimblecombe]
Cunningham's Gap is a magnificent section of the Great Dividing Range south of the Bunya Mts. I used to drive through the Gap on my way from Brisbane to Goondiwindi, where I lived for 18 years. Each time I approached it from the east my breath was taken away. Glorious shadows cast by the peaks created patterns and shapes that seemed to dance with the sunlight. I stopped many times to sketch these shadows. You can see them in Past and Future Landscape .
Yet, the mountains in my painting are not attached to other identifiable landscape elements. They float in an indeterminable space. In fact, there are two mountain ranges, as if mirroring each other. They meet at a point where a tree...my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life...reveals its canopy of branches and its anchoring roots. A central source of light is identifiable if you look at the shadows cast on the mountains.
UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE
I've previously written about my ideas of untethering ideas of 'landscape' from being Earth-bound, to release more cosmic perspectives. I suggest that this is important in an age where cosmological research is revealing more and more about the close and far distances of the Universe...indeed maybe the Multiverse. By untethering 'landscape' we afford ourselves an opportunity to experience multiple perspectives, even simultaneously! How might we view ourselves and our home, planet Earth, then?
The tree-of-life in Past and Future Landscape represents all life, past and future. The roots suggest the past and the canopy of branches represents new life, future life. And, life with accompanying consciousness means that 'landscape' is observed. But, now we have an opportunity to take conscious observation beyond Earthly horizons, at the same time as firmly placing Earth within a Universal environment...address even. In doing so we release ourselves to an expanded consciousness that may hold treats we, as yet, can only imagine. But, imagining may be the first step!
Without consciousness, after all, there would be no visible universe. Something would exist, but nothing can be said about it. Prof. Joel Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams, The new Universe and The Human Future: How a shared cosmology could transform the world. Yale University press, new Haven and London, P.76
Our relationship with and to landscape somehow mediates and forms our identity and our conscious awareness of ourselves. If we are to become more cosmically aware citizens of the Universe/Multiverse we probably need to see landscape as something more than those within the boundaries of Earth's horizons. This is not to say that we abandon Earth based landscapes. They just become an integral part of a cosmic matrix. By untethering 'landscape' from being Earth-bound, we actually untether ourselves and our awareness. Who knows what we'll discover?
Pirrinuan Siding Photograph by Wilfred Brimblecombe 1978
Check out more of Wilfred's photographs HERE
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TATTERSALL'S LANDSCAPE ART AWARD
My painting
Super Earths Discovered
is a finalist!
You can view all the finalists by clicking HERE
and you can read about Super Earths Discovered HERE
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COSMIC ADDRESS
Is my next solo exhibition
in Brisbane
15-27 October
Please check out my
for all the details!
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Here's a link to one previous post where I write about untethered landscape.
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Cheers,
Kathryn
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