Eucalyptus

4 - 30 October 2014

Liverpool Street Gallery

I have been travelling annually to the desert, to Fowler’s Gap in far north-western New South Wales for over twenty years. The painting Eucalyptus and the recent body of paintings, sculptures and works on paper relate to my experience of the desert and nature.

I tend to fall in love with a subject, and then make work that is an exploration of the ‘thing’ and its place in the world. It’s about making sense of things.

Eucalyptus came from a charcoal drawing of gum leaves that I made in situ in the red-desert. The shapes, forms and colours of the painting relate to the leaves, the shadows on the ground, the surrounding elements. The result is a flat, linear painting that works on both a micro and macro level. 

I’m not interested in a literal translation but a poetic moment that speaks of things in nature. I am interested in the conversation between Western and Indigenous landscape painting. 

Peter Sharp

June 2014