HISTORY:
Another of our Australian paintings that was given to us because it is an Australian landscape scene which is just a bit "different", particularly the techniques used and the colouring.
We "think" this is a creation by Don Lewis, Australian artist from Queensland. From a young man Don worked as an artist alongside his father Frank and obviously learned his painting techniques from his father. The gum trunks especially stand out because of the technique used, not brush strokes but something akin to a scraping. This creates an almost 3D type of effect and the gumtree trunks grab the eye (look at me look at me!)
The scene is very typical of works from both his Dad and Don, a country/bush setting with a shed, homestead or similar in the centre and bush surroundings, often with fencing in the foreground.
You may like to take a look at Don's website or if you were lucky, perhaps catch him "on the road" up in Queensland, searching for new scenes to capture on board.
The colours used are very much in the sepia realm with Brown being dominant but there are "touches" of bright Reds to the central bushes. The foreground fence with a tangled mess of barbed wire along with the gumtree's and bushes "framing" the old homestead in the background.
The artwork is "playing" with light and the choice of colours (or the lack of) shows this, Don has not tried to re-create the scene in a realistic "colour photographic" style but instead used his techniques to create what is a pretty unique example of Australian country/landscape art.
Even the medium used has been chosen to enhance the use of light in the painting as we believe this is an acrylic paint because of the sharply defined edges and lack of "fuzziness" in the detail and the paint is quite "thin", meaning that when it is touched there is very little by way of "bumps" in the paint, our oil paintings have a much "heavier/textured" feel to them.
Enough of all that, we liked the artwork but it really doesn't fit with our collection so it is now waiting for a new wall to be hung on ...
DON LEWIS - Australian Country Scene
Acrylic on board
1980
Don has signed his artwork, lower edge towards the right hand side.
The artwork is undamaged and clean
The simple wooden frame is in good condition, clean and undamaged. The rear is of course sealed with paper artists tape but over the years this seal has begun to fail (light tearing) which we have not worried about having repaired. If the condition of the seal concerns the new owner, they will need to have this paper seal replaced.
Hanging wire (actually nylon) is in placed at the rear, ready to be hung once again
Now that the artwork has been taken down from the wall, it is now sealed in cello-wrap (normal plastics can affect artwork) for safe keeping until it is on the way to a new owner.
MEASUREMENTS:
ARTWORK: 293mm wide x 192mm high
FRAME: 356mm wide x 252mm high
