London-based Welsh artist Daniel Crawshaw is the embodiment of an artistic adventurer, if ever there was one. Having traversed wild landscapes the world around for the better part of two decades, in the tradition of our early 19th century artistic émigrés, the UK native has now tackled the Great Southern Land. In what is the second of an ongoing series of international displays from Gippsland Art Gallery, Crawshaw presents ‘High Country Gothic’, curated by Simon Gregg.
Crawshaw’s travels have seen him explore and paint pristine landscapes in such countries as Canada, Switzerland, Spain, and Wales, capturing their untouched beauty in his works. Gippsland Art Gallery curator Simon Gregg invited Crawshaw to Australia in 2012, having seen his work and thought it a good fit for the gallery. In October of that year, Crawshaw made the voyage, basing himself at the Cowwaar Artspace in Central Gippsland, from where he regularly journeyed out into the High Country Alpine National Park over a period of six weeks.
“In coming over to Australia I made a big commitment to the task of tackling an entirely new landscape. I came with no idea of what to expect and have had to tackle what I found”, Crawshaw says. He researched extensively in his preparation for the trip, making formal plans but with no real understanding of what to expect when he arrived. “I did a lot of preparation before going, and all my preparation was just the logistics of being there … but I hadn’t really addressed what sort of landscape it would be and what it would actually look like,” he says.
The works produced during Crawshaw’s time in Gippsland will be on display alongside paintings made in his native Wales during many trips into the craggy wilderness. When viewed in parallel, the paintings have many affinities – most notably, a darkness derived from a sense of foreboding, of the overwhelming power of nature. This strikes a particular chord with Crawshaw, who actually found himself lost on one expedition to Mount Erica, only making his way back to safety by carefully and painstakingly retracing his steps.
Though dark and mysterious, the paintings are also imbued with optimism, a soft light that suggests awe or excitement. Crawshaw’s path recalls that of some of Australia’s earliest painters – early Australian art was largely produced by European artists. In the late 18th century, convict artist Thomas Watling painted landscapes of Sydney, producing the first oil paintings of local flora and fauna. A century later, European artists Eugene von Guérard and Nicholas Chevalier brought a distinctly European sensibility to Australian landscape painting, rendering scenes with a misty-eyed idealism. Even so, ecologists have looked to Von Guérard’s works, including Tower Hill (1855), to inform their conservation efforts – idealised, but nonetheless documentary works of a time before environmental degradation.
Featuring over 40 paintings, ‘High Country Gothic’ will envelope its audience in the grandeur of its subject, drawing them in to Crawshaw’s artistic adventure. The display includes small and large-scale works, as well as plein air sketches, allowing viewers to experience the highs and the lows of venturing into uncharted territory.
Gippsland Art Gallery
15 March to 11 May, 2014
Victoria
Gallt Y Wenallt Snowmelt, 2013, oil on canvas, 50 x 40cm
Clearing I, 2013, oil on canvas, 152 x 200cm
Courtesy the artist and Gipsland Art Gallery, Sale
