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Lot Essay
Boyd bought Riversdale on the Shoalhaven River close to Bundanon in 1973. While the house was renovated, he lived at Earie Park from late 1974, as he divided his time between Australia and England. The Shoalhaven area became the inspiration of his work through the 1970s and he exhibited paintings on copper of the subject at Australian Galleries in Melbourne in 1976 and at Fischer Fine Art in London in 1977.
'Most of the copper paintings were executed in England from detailed sketches done in situ. They have an intimate quality in contrast to the large scale of the landscape itself, yet they convey the variety of the landscape in the same way as do prints or drawings in a book. The quality of paint on metal gives a jewel-like illusion. It was the tremendous sharpness and clarity of light on the Shoalhaven as opposed to the more southerly Australian landscape of his early painting that made oil on copper so suitable a medium. ... Boyd worked on the copper paintings for between twelve and eighteen months, creating approximately thirty. They were 'astonishing in their detail, tonal qualities and truth to nature'. ... To a large extent the copper paintings are a celebration of nature and represent a pensive pause before the dramas unfold -- when the Shoalhaven becomes a stage for Boyd's images of humanity's future, for uncertainty, isolation and vulnerability.' (J. McKenzie, Arthur Boyd, Art & Life, London, 2000, pp.171-78)
'Most of the copper paintings were executed in England from detailed sketches done in situ. They have an intimate quality in contrast to the large scale of the landscape itself, yet they convey the variety of the landscape in the same way as do prints or drawings in a book. The quality of paint on metal gives a jewel-like illusion. It was the tremendous sharpness and clarity of light on the Shoalhaven as opposed to the more southerly Australian landscape of his early painting that made oil on copper so suitable a medium. ... Boyd worked on the copper paintings for between twelve and eighteen months, creating approximately thirty. They were 'astonishing in their detail, tonal qualities and truth to nature'. ... To a large extent the copper paintings are a celebration of nature and represent a pensive pause before the dramas unfold -- when the Shoalhaven becomes a stage for Boyd's images of humanity's future, for uncertainty, isolation and vulnerability.' (J. McKenzie, Arthur Boyd, Art & Life, London, 2000, pp.171-78)