Richard Dunlop has a PhD in philosophy from the University of Queensland and a second PhD, in arts, from Griffith University. The native Queenslander now lives in Deloraine with his wife, Kylie Elkington, who is also an artist. Dunlop has exhibited in Australia, Japan, Switzerland and the US. His work in response to Tasmanian landscape has been valuable contribution to new dialogue in the arts. The following essay is an introductionm to the show, which will be his third exhibition with Colville Gallery.

Richard Dunlop’s new exhibition, Short walks in North Tasmania has subjects which are varied, cumulatively recording certain aspects or characteristics of the region in which he lives and works.

By Richard Dunlop

In Search of Thylacine in the Great Western Tiers” offers a viewpoint that the backbone of Tasmanian landscape painting is inextricably linked to the mythical status of the rapid extinction of the Tasmanian Tiger by a certain colonial mindset that viewed it as the only effective competitor predator.  “Crossings” also refers obliquely to broader events (painted as it was during the invasion of Ukraine) and some qualities soaked up from a range of artists I admire, from Grant Wood through to  Colin McCahon’s paintings of North Otago). On the whole,  I prefer works to have no obvious polemical associations, but preserve more timeless, elusive qualities. Most of the real subjects of the show are entirely abstract and classical in nature: about the conveyance of a certain light on water, composition with form, experiments in spatial depth and shifting perspectives, and the like. The elegant form of the weeping cherry is one in which I do not tire. It is a tree which line nearby waterways, has enduring poignant asssociations with ephemerality and acceptance of fate, but it is the juxtaposition of the form of the tree and adjacent river which also allows for audacious experiments with colour relationships.

I listen to classical music while I work, benefitting from the pulse of the musician’s compositions in laying on brushstrokes, insignia of birds becoming to resemble musical notations or scores. Just as Williams animated Upwey and even Flinders Island with curves of fallen logs, the birds are used to play with depth of field and shifting perspective. It is a short walk in North Tasmania to landscapes that are reminiscent of Piguenit’s efforts at the sublime, John Glover’s visions of pastures, and various others who have attempted since, emphasizing the ways in which certain landscape painters give us many lenses by which to choose to see through, rather than at landscapes. It’s also a short walk to folk art, the crystalline colours of waterways catchments like Lake St Clair (source of the Derwent), misty mirages, land under neat agriculture, lush indoor gardens, Cradle Mountain, birds in formation, heavily tattooed bodies, and more.