Brushfire

Brush Fire, 2015, acrylic on canvas, 107 x 151 cm.

I have attempted to capture a beautiful yet frightening vision, a paradox of destruction and regeneration, that has the potential to create within the viewer thoughts of sublimity.

The reference for this work was the devastating January 2013 Coonabarabran bushfires. This fast moving fire swept across grasslands burning out over 47,000ha, with a fire front of 100km wide. 51 homes were lost to the fire, and many more damaged along with the Siding Spring Observatory.

“Sublimity ... involves characteristically large canvasses which, through evocation’s of wild natural grandeur, limitlessness, or intense painterly means, seek to express ultimate truths about the individuals relation to the world.” – Paul Crowther, The Contemporary Sublime, Sensibilities of Transcendence and Shock, Art & Design, Vol. 10, No. 12, January – February 1995

Click here to read my essay on the romantic and contemporary sublime.