The Art of Australia

Today I visited the Royal Academy to see the Australia exhibition which closes on December 6th. We have visited many Australian Art Galleries and always enjoyed the unique quality of Australian art. The recent BBC 3 part series The Art of Australia was another motivator. The exhibition did not disappoint. I especially enjoyed these works:

Evening Shadows, Backwater of the Murray, South Australia (1890) by H. J. Johnstone

from The Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide

The Flood in the Darling by William Charles Piguenit  (1890)

via Wikimedia Commons

The Pioneer by Frederick McCubbin (1904), via Wikimedia Commons

Fire's On by Arthur Streeton (1891), via Wikimedia Commons

A Break Away by Tom Roberts (1891), via Wikimedia Commons

This painting brings back good memories of several trips to Palm Beach. On one we walked to the end of the pier to board a boat trip round the area:

Adrian Feint, The Jetties, Palm Beach (1942)

The Car by John Brack (1955)

The Drover's Wife by Russell Drysdale (1945) : interesting video of this painting

Another of his paintings is a favourite (not in the exhibition): Sofala (1947). We have seen this in both Sydney and Melbourne galleries.

This is from Tasmania, where we spent a glorious five days around 1991: 
Autumn equinox: the loss of the sun by Philip Wolfhagen (2009)

Abo history (facts) by Robert Campbell Jnr (1988):

A Spoonbill fishes at Newhaven

Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia with fish or shrimp

to  view  a  Slideshow,  click  here

On Monday blue skies lured me to Newhaven to see the juvenile Spoonbill which had been resident for a week. I parked in the Tide Mills car park, then wandered west by the Tide Pool until I saw a crowd on the footbridge pointing large lenses at this charismatic bird. I spent two hours observing its fascinating behaviour. It moved its beak from side to side in the water and caught small fish, shrimp and a large crab. The tide was out so the pool had plenty of exposed mud. Every so often the bird would walk out of the water onto the mud and a stream of white would emerge from its backside. It didn't seem to mind the onlookers, but would not walk under the footbridge with its observers, instead it flew to the other side.

with fish

with fish

with fish

with fish

crabby

with fish

with fish