VISTAS - Des Rolph
It has been said that the test of a great painting is if you can live inside it. How easy it is to wander through these timeless, haunting vistas; the subtlety and the drama of a uniquely Australian landscape.
With the trademark Rolph palette, be prepared for ‘déjà vu’ because you have walked this way before. In patterned dreams, faded memories and definitely Mackellar’s sunburnt country. ‘Will o the wisp’ figures, fauna and flora, populate wilderness terrains like ghostly fossils etched into a prehistoric land.
When ‘no other red’ will do colour is everything, down to the rich red ochre of a dry, sunlit earth. The stained white rays of the mysterious min min lights and tinted ultramarines of a moody sky. Woody, understated browns, where every brushstroke texturizes a painterly scrubland that snakes skyward against a parched, desolate horizon.
More often it is the sum of the parts that draw us in. To rest amidst familiar sounds and smells evoked by scenes that the artist’s eye has translated into a series of stunning, iconic vistas.
Julie McSorley
P.G.C.E (London) M.Ed, Ph.D (Queensland)
