‘Stirring the ash’ is a collaboration between painter Euan Macleod and photographer Andrew Merry inspired by the harsh, liminal landscape of Napoleon Reef, near Bathurst, and fire as a destructive and creative force in the Australian landscape.
Merry’s long exposure photographs capture Macleod painting and interacting with a bonfire, his figure blurred and distorted. In turn, Macleod has woven Merry into his en plein air paintings of the fire and landscape, resulting in a combined body of work that is both explosive and quietly reflective, that blazes, flickers, and glows.
Euan Macleod, Figures across fire, 2019, acrylic on linen, 213 × 133cm. Courtesy the artist, King Street Gallery on William, Sydney and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales
Bathurst Regional Art Gallery
5 June to 25 July 2021
New South Wales
