Michelle Hiscock 2018

Au s t r a l i a n Ga l l e r i e s SYDNeY

Michelle Hiscock

Au s t r a l i a n Ga l l e r i e s SYDNeY

invites you to the opening

MICHELLE HISCOCK War and Peace Paintings and Drawings from St Albans and the Western Front Thursday 14 June 2018 6pm to 8pm 15 roylston street Paddington nsW 2021 to be opened at 6:45pm by Dr John Vallance, State Librarian of New South Wales Current until sunday 1 July 2018 Open 7 days 10am to 6pm t 02 9360 5177 sydney@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au Member art Galleries association of australia

Cover: From the Courthouse 2018 watercolour and gouache on paper 32 x 25 cm top right: The Danger Tree, Beaumont-Hamel 2017 watercolour on paper 14.5 x 20.5 cm Centre right: Tree, Caterpillar Crater 2017 watercolour and gouache on paper 38 x 28 cm right: Bunker, Polygon Wood 2018 watercolour and gouache on paper 38 x 28 cm

The Dam at Dusk 2018 watercolour and gouache on paper 38 x 27.5 cm

River Nocturne, study 2018 watercolour and gouache on paper 23 x 17 cm

War and Peace

to sketch. i then spent the month of september as

Paintings and Drawings from St Albans

the inaugural st albans artist in residence. this was

and the Western Front

an opportunity for concentrated work in solitude, gradually developing an intimate relationship with this

When i was a child i loved the landscapes of albert namatjira, in which an aboriginal artist taught us to see his country in our own language. Growing up in Canberra, hours spent in the new australian national Gallery, as it then was, deepened my understanding of both the country and the language, and gradually i found my way back to the source of that language in the classical and plein-air traditions grounded in the

unique place. at first, the juxtaposition of the two landscapes didn’t strike me as meaningful, but the longer i wor ked, the more i discovered a web of connections. Because the sites of each project were in different hemispheres, it was early spring in both cases, forming a strangely mirrored effect

roman Campagna.

in my imagination. spring is a powerfully evocative

at art school, Postmodernism was riding high. Painting

Western Front, it also made the contrast between

was returning from its prematurely announced death with imants tillers, who helped to rediscover the genius of eugene von Guerard, and yet whose own work implied that such direct and serious connection with nature was no longer possible. it was a tantalising and yet frustrating environment for a young painter striving to find her way home, to the heart of a living practice. i steered clear of a painting depar tment that recommended deskilling as a way to become more relevant and took refuge in a department led by Petr Herel, a Czech artist with a love of everything related to drawing and poetry. landscape seemed to have reached its lowest ebb. in fact, instinctively i felt it had lain fallow for long enough to be revisited, however tentatively: it was to be the start of a long journey through art history and theory and technical

time to spend out of doors but, in the case of the the devastation of War and the lush and peaceful farmland it had returned to, all the more dramatic and difficult to digest. at st albans, the bright spring weather contrasted with a different kind of melancholy. as i was developing a small colour study from sketches of a rocky outcrop by the lake in st albans Common, it suddenly started to look like a bunker i had drawn at Hill 60. i had sensed a gloom hanging about the Common, even in the brightest sunlight, but this rocky structure now took on a new meaning: its bunkerlike form became an emblem of a frontline closer to home. Conflicts which are barely acknowledged continue to haunt this land, the setting for Kate Grenville’s novel the secret river.

Working on these landscapes has made me realise

studies, yet always returning to nature.

how much more inspiring it is to engage with a

last year i was invited to spend time sketching in

tragic historical events. and the classical landscape

two very different landscapes. in april, with a group of eleven other artists, I travelled to the battlefields of the Western Front. Our expert guide took us to

landscape that bears the traces of impor tant, even tradition is particularly attentive to what lies beneath, to the palimpsest of the land, the memory embedded in the earth.

the somme Valley, in northern France and the area known as the Ypres salient, in Belgium, explaining the significance of each location before allowing us time

Michelle Hiscock, 2018

The Hidden Valley, Early Spring 2017 watercolour and gouache on paper 38 x 27.5 cm

The Menin Gate 2017 watercolour on paper 20.5 x 25.5 cm

Along the Ramparts, PĂŠronne 2017 watercolour on paper 28 x 21 cm

MICHelle HISCOCK

Michelle Hiscock sketching en plein air at St Albans 2017

Pool of Peace 2017 watercolour and gouache on paper 25.5 x 56.5 cm

Au s t r a l i a n Ga l l e r i e s MelBOurne: Derby street 03 9417 4303 stock rooms 03 9417 2422 sYDneY: roylston street 02 9360 5177 enquiries@australiangalleries.com.au australiangalleries.com.au Design and Production by Publishing Member art Galleries association of australia