Rainforest dancer, 2015
These are the last of the Michael McWilliams paintings I will show, and it culminates on the same day the exhibition at the QVMAG in Launceston ends.
I hope you have enjoyed the work by this significant Australian painter, and will continue to support his work. You can even purchase his paintings via links on his personal web site. There are three major galleries that represent his work:
michaelmcwilliams.squarespace.com/contact
Rainforest dancer, 2015
Acrylic on linen
120 x 150 cm
This painting is my personal favourite. Rough night out, 2012 is a more dramatic and arguably better painting, but look closely at this forest scene. In this primordial setting a lone Pademelon (Thylogale) dances on the forest floor (where the little nothofagus leaves look like confetti) with no seeming threat for this little creature. It's like the Garden of Eden (without Adam and Eve). But that's not to say that people don't belong here, for thousands of years the indigenous Palawa people lived in relative harmony with the native fauna. Apart from hunting for food, the few thousand indigenous people who populated Tasmania at any one time, meant the animals were never hunted to extinction.
When the colonisers arrived at the turn of the 19th century the numbers of Palawa people were estimated to be no more than 4000 to 5000. As these people were literally driven off their land and the surviving few harboured on Flinders Island, the human population in the colony rose substantially. And with it came the land clearances, the forest felling, the introduction of exotic species, and the destruction of a whole host of native flora and fauna. Life in the forest was never to be the same again.
So dance on little Pademelon, for you remind us of how things once were. And if we are to take proper stewardship of this land, then perhaps we can restore a little of the natural harmony that once was in this sacred place.
Rainforest dancer, 2015
These are the last of the Michael McWilliams paintings I will show, and it culminates on the same day the exhibition at the QVMAG in Launceston ends.
I hope you have enjoyed the work by this significant Australian painter, and will continue to support his work. You can even purchase his paintings via links on his personal web site. There are three major galleries that represent his work:
michaelmcwilliams.squarespace.com/contact
Rainforest dancer, 2015
Acrylic on linen
120 x 150 cm
This painting is my personal favourite. Rough night out, 2012 is a more dramatic and arguably better painting, but look closely at this forest scene. In this primordial setting a lone Pademelon (Thylogale) dances on the forest floor (where the little nothofagus leaves look like confetti) with no seeming threat for this little creature. It's like the Garden of Eden (without Adam and Eve). But that's not to say that people don't belong here, for thousands of years the indigenous Palawa people lived in relative harmony with the native fauna. Apart from hunting for food, the few thousand indigenous people who populated Tasmania at any one time, meant the animals were never hunted to extinction.
When the colonisers arrived at the turn of the 19th century the numbers of Palawa people were estimated to be no more than 4000 to 5000. As these people were literally driven off their land and the surviving few harboured on Flinders Island, the human population in the colony rose substantially. And with it came the land clearances, the forest felling, the introduction of exotic species, and the destruction of a whole host of native flora and fauna. Life in the forest was never to be the same again.
So dance on little Pademelon, for you remind us of how things once were. And if we are to take proper stewardship of this land, then perhaps we can restore a little of the natural harmony that once was in this sacred place.