Podcasts about Arthur Streeton

Jane visits the garden created by landscape painter Arthur Streeton for his wife, that has remained a beautiful illustration of their love and of horticultural history.

Australian Impressionism is a large-scale exhibition of 270 artworks by some of Australia’s most widely recognisable and celebrated artists including Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Jane Sutherland, Arthur Streeton, Charles Conder,... LEARN MORE The post She, Oak and Sunlight – Australian Impressionism and the National Gallery of Victoria Ian Potter Centre Federation Square appeared first on Sunday Arts Magazine.

David and Perry look at Australian literature, ranging from a book about bushrangers written in serial form in 1882 to modern science fiction. Reading overload (00:30) Comfort reads (01:50) Hugo Award nominations (02:47) Nebula Awards short list (07:58) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (00:05) The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (00:17) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (00:22) The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk (00:42) Black Sun by Rebecca Rowanhorse (00:22) Network Effect by Martha Wells (01:22) Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (03:35) Such is Life by Joseph Furphy (04:42) The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower (08:12) Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood (08:47) Dispersion by Greg Egan (05:59) The Black Opal by Katharine Susannah Prichard (07:52) Falling Towards England by Clive James (04:42) The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (01:36) Discussion with W. H. Chong (21:14) The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (04:03) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (02:04) The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott (03:53) Underland by Robert McFarlane (03:24) Reading multiple genres (02:41) Poetry (00:29) New translation of Beowulf (01:43) Wind-up (02:15) Illustration: "Fire's On!" by Arthur Streeton.

David and Perry look at Australian literature, ranging from a book about bushrangers written in serial form in 1882 to modern science fiction. Reading overload (00:30) Comfort reads (01:50) Hugo Award nominations (02:47) Nebula Awards short list (07:58) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (00:05) The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin (00:17) Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (00:22) The Midnight Bargain by C. L. Polk (00:42) Black Sun by Rebecca Rowanhorse (00:22) Network Effect by Martha Wells (01:22) Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark (03:35) Such is Life by Joseph Furphy (04:42) The Watch Tower by Elizabeth Harrower (08:12) Robbery Under Arms by Rolf Boldrewood (08:47) Dispersion by Greg Egan (05:59) The Black Opal by Katharine Susannah Prichard (07:52) Falling Towards England by Clive James (04:42) The Ministry For The Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (01:36) Discussion with W. H. Chong (21:14) The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (04:03) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (02:04) The Rain Heron by Robbie Arnott (03:53) Underland by Robert McFarlane (03:24) Reading multiple genres (02:41) Poetry (00:29) New translation of Beowulf (01:43) Wind-up (02:15) Click here for more info and links Illustration: "Fire's On!" by Arthur Streeton.

A.H. Fullwood was the most viewed British-Australian artist of the late 1800s and early 1900s. His artist contemporaries and friends were Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. Yet Fullwood is little remembered now. A new biography seeks to bring him and his work back to life.

In the late 19th century, impressionism swept through the art world. In Australia, a group of young artists embraced the new movement - they would meet in artist's camps and paint en plein air. Among them was a young Arthur Streeton who would in due course become one of Australia's most loved and respected artists.   Wayne Tunnicliffe has curated an outstanding retrospective of Streeton’s work. Wayne is Head Curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, and the retrospective gathers together over 150 of Streeton’s works, some not seen in public in over 100 years. This is Streeton as he has never been seen before. Wayne had the idea for the exhibition when he was curatorial adviser to an exhibition of Australian impressionists at the National Gallery in London. It was clear to him that Streeton stood out as the most significant landscape painter in the group. It makes sense that this retrospective is held at the Art Gallery of NSW. Not only does the Gallery have the largest collection of Streetons anywhere in the world, but they started buying his work in 1890 when he was an emerging artist at only 23 years of age.  In this episode we explore Streeton's life: his early years, his meeting some of the key figures in Australian art, his experience of life in London and during WWI, and his later years back in Australia. We also dig deep into a couple of the works with Wayne providing some fascinating insights. To hear the interview press 'play' beneath the above feature photo. You can see images of the works we talk about below. Streeton opens at the Art Gallery of NSW on 7 November 2020 and runs until 14 February 2021. To purchase tickets to the exhibition click here. https://youtu.be/JRvUErfm87Y Video excerpt from the podcast interview with Wayne Tunnicliffe on the forthcoming exhibition 'Streeton'. Here we talk about the iconic painting 'Fire's On' from the AGNSW's collection. To hear the full audio podcast episode (and more about this painting) click on the 'play' button under the feature photo at the top of this page. 'Golden Summer, Eaglemont', 1889, oil on canvas, 81.3 x 152.6cmNational Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 1995 ‘Still glides the stream, and shall for ever glide’ 1890, oil on canvas, later mounted on hardboard, 82.6 x 153 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, purchased 1890 Photo: Jenni Carter, AGNSW 'Spring', 1890, oil on canvas on plywood, 81.4 x 152.6cmNational Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Gift of Mrs Margery Pierce, 1978 'Fire's on', 1891, oil on canvas 225.5 x 164 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales Purchased 1893 Photo: Jenni Carter, AGNSW 'From McMahon's Point - fare one penny' 1890 oil on canvas 117.7 x 97.5 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra Purchased 1972 ‘The purple noon’s transparent might’ 1896 oil on canvas, 123 x 123 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, purchased 1896 33-2 Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 'The Grand Canal' 1908 oil on canvas, 93 x 169 cm Collection of Susan Clarke, Victoria Photo: Glen Watson Arthur Streeton 'Balloons on fire' 1918 oil on canvas 63.4 × 76.2 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Gilbee Bequest, 1918 Photo: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne

The Forefront team gathers in the studio with all-new podcasting equipment for this latest arts review episode. 01:01 - Nate recommends some favorite episodes from other podcasts: Cooper and Cary Have Words, Between Dreams, and Redeemed Imagination 07:59 - Rich discusses some of his favorite Australian painters: Charles Conder, Arthur Streeton, and Frederick McCubbin  19:37 - Sean recalls tales from his adventures in the U.K. 24:11 - Cody reviews the new feature film 1917 and the short film Pastime

Andrew Tischler pursues artistic truth in his painting. Currently residing in New Zealand, Andrew was born in Texas. Later, his family immigrated to Australia when he was a young child. The son of sculpturer, Andrew loved to look at his father’s art books. He became enthralled with American wildlife painter Carl Rungius. Moved by the paintings he saw, Andrew began painting at a young age, and quickly progressed to become a professional, full-time artist by the time he was 21 years of age. Early in his career, Andrew strove to create quality paintings. In order to do that, he felt the need to work out a methodology to produce consistent quality. He became obsessed with the process of painting. Andrew likens his obsession to surfers who go around the world searching to catch the perfect wave. He is addicted to the search and the chase of an idea for a painting, and he is addicted to the feeling of making the best painting possible. This episode clocks in at over two hours long. Andrew does not hold back! He explains where his ideas for a painting comes from and how he develops that idea. Andrews shares three questions all artists should ask when developing an idea. He says these questions have transformed his career as an artist. Though Andrew achieve early financial success as a professional artist - like a lot of artists he was affected by the global downturn in the economy. That downturn taught him the importance of diversifying his sources of income and in this episode he explains how he has accomplished that. Mentioned in the show: Andrew Tischler’s website https://www.andrewtischler.com Andrew Tischler’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg4eQuX8UoZkpZNno-eyYoQ Andrew Tischler on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/andrew_tischler_artist/ The Creative Endeavor Podcast https://andrewtischler.podbean.com Tom Tischler (Sculpturer, Andrew’s father) http://www.tomtischler.com Ben Haggett’s Alla Prima Pochade Box https://allaprimapochade.com Carl Rungius - American Wildlife Painter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Rungius Heidelberg School (including artists Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, and Hans Heysen) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heidelberg_School Droving into the Light, by Hans Heysen (Art Gallery of Western Australia) https://nga.gov.au/exhibition/HEYSEN/Default.cfm?IRN=196937&BioArtistIRN=16602&MnuID=3&GalID=4&ViewID=2 Dr. John Demartini https://drdemartini.com Jordan B. Peterson https://jordanbpeterson.com Tony Robbins https://www.tonyrobbins.com Grant Cardone https://grantcardone.com James Schramko https://www.superfastbusiness.com Gary Vaynerchuk https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com Andrew Tischler’s video of portrait of Russell Petherbridge  https://youtu.be/TuGWvmvK-3w Gothic Folly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folly Ted Kautsky's Pencil Book https://amzn.to/2NMdoEO (affiliate link) Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, USA https://boothmuseum.org Edgar Payne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Alwin_Payne Virgil Elliott https://virgilelliott.com Langridge Artist Colors http://langridgecolours.com Michael Harding Handmade Artists Oil Colors https://www.michaelharding.co.uk Gamblin Artists Colors https://www.gamblincolors.com Old Holland Classic Colours https://www.oldholland.com Williamsburg Handmade Oil Colors http://www.williamsburgoils.com Vasari Classic Artists’ Oil Colors https://www.vasaricolors.com Blockx https://www.blockx.be/en/produits/huiles.asp Rublev https://www.naturalpigments.com/rublev-colours-oil-paints/ Art Spectrum https://artspectrum.com.au 'The Tisch' Bristle Dagger Brush Set from Rosemary & Co. https://www.rosemaryandco.com/gift-sets/the-tisch-brush-set   About The Artful Painter Artful Painter website: https://theartfulpainter.com Carl Olson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artful.creative/

Gina Kalabishis's work is about relationships and connection; connecting with nature and connecting with each other. Her recent show at Flinders Lane Gallery, 'Bundanon Floor to Sky', drew on her time spent within the landscape of Bundanon, the gift that artist Arthur Boyd and his wife Yvonne gave to the Australian people. Bundanon is a property of over 1000 hectares on the Shoalhaven river in NSW which offers residencies to artists and writers, an extensive education program and much more. From her time at Bundanon, Kalabishis has produced an astonishing body of work. Her triptych 'Bundanon Floor to Sky - You are always a part of me now (after Van Morrison)', which is over three and a half metres long, immerses the viewer into that lush landscape from the roots of the trees to the sky above. Other works in the series, too, explore the area from the ground all the way up to the troposphere, far above the landscape. Kalabishis also combines ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement, with native Australian plants, taking them out of the domestic setting into the landscape. Bones and shells also form part of the imagery which she creates through a combination of sculpture and digital technology. Last year she was awarded the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award and has won many other awards including the Rick Amor drawing prize. She has exhibited in 18 solo shows and her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia and many other institutions and private collections. Kalabishis grew up in Melbourne - her parents were Greek migrants - and this conversation starts with her memories of work experience at the National Gallery of Victoria when she was 16.  It was 1985 and the ‘Golden Summers’ exhibition was showing  at the gallery. The exhibition was very popular at the time and included works by Australian impressionists of the Heidelberg school including Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts. Kalabashis talks about her recent exhibition and generously reveals much about her process which takes advantage of 21st century technology. To hear Maria Stoljar's conversation with Gina Kalabishis press 'play' under the feature photo above. Recent exhibition 'Bundanon Floor to Sky', Flinders Lane Gallery, 17 July - 11 August 2018 Show notes Gina Kalabishis Gina Kalabishis at Flinders Lane Gallery Gina Kalabishis on Instagram Eutick Memorial Still Life Award Bundanon Trust Arthur Streeton Tom Roberts Eugene Von Guerard Van Morrison Norman Sparnon Michael Kiwanuka Nick Cave Else Torp Lost by Frederick McCubbin Irene Hanenbergh Bundanon Siteworks 2018 Anya Mckee Art Spectrum Luke Istomin on Instagram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gCFCuYbiWM    

Arthur Streeton toured the shell-scarred landscapes of France in 1918, recording the fields over which Australian soldiers had fought and died. His paintings hint at the loss suffered by a generation of young Australians.

Arthur Streeton's visions of the landscape have defined an image of Australia. 'Fire's on' in particular is considered his greatest evocation of the country's heat and sunlight. Painted a year after the artist left Melbourne for Sydney, it constitutes a radical new type of landscape in his oeuvre. Its vertical composition and the high horizon line bring focus to the steep terrain with precarious rocks and dead tree-trunks. The painting captures a critical moment during the construction of a railway line across the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney: the death of a railway worker in an explosion. 'Fire's on' was the warning call before the blast, as the gang dynamited the Lapstone Tunnel through the hillside. The human drama of the painting, however, is overshadowed by the heroism of the landscape itself.

Bertram Mackennal was one of the most successful Australian artists working internationally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His profile and performance in Britain, where he lived as an expatriate, substantially outshone that of his Australian peers such as Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. ‘The dancer’, acquired by the Art Gallery of NSW in 1910, was the first work by Mackennal to be purchased by an Australian public gallery (the National Gallery of Victoria bought his ‘Circe’ later the same year). Mackennal was born in 1863 at Fitzroy, Melbourne. His first training was with his father, John Simpson Mackennal, a locally prominent architectural modeller and sculptor. This was followed by formal instruction at the National Gallery School of Design under OR Campbell from 1878. Mackennal left Australia for London in 1882, and was admitted to the Royal Academy schools as a sculpture student in late 1883. After a short period, Mackennal moved to Paris, dissatisfied with his sculptural training in London. He took a studio and worked independently, while also meeting various sculptors, including Auguste Rodin, and learning from their methods. In Paris, Mackennal married Agnes Spooner, and they returned to England for the birth of their child in 1885. Influenced in the 1880s by the avant-garde aspirations of British ‘New Sculptors’, Mackennal had become a prominent civic sculptor and a master of Edwardian style by the early 1900s. He acutely understood sculpture as an art of patronage, and demonstrated his ability to work quickly and completely within the dictates of convention by undertaking various commissions for public monuments. Mackennal was the first Australian artist to have his work purchased for the Tate gallery. He was also the first Australian artist to be knighted and to become a full member of London’s Royal Academy. ‘The dancer’ is a life-size bronze nude, characteristic of Mackennal’s sculpture in its expressive modelling and direct sense of life. It reveals his skill in dealing with complex movement. The work presents a figure arrested in action: the dancer arches and turns her body with twin spiral movements from legs to spine and shoulders. Her pose is relaxed as she steps forward, flourishing Spanish castanets, her outstretched foot lightly touching the ground. Through the carefully balanced pose, the work expresses a sense of graceful movement and a relaxed sensuality. The influence of Symbolism and Art Nouveau can be seen in the simple planes of the work.

The Artistic Journalist Celebrated, praised and loved. Find out how Arthur Streeton achieved artistic greatness with virtually no formal training. NGV Acting Curator of Australian Art, Humphrey Clegg

“Working in a fiery trance” 108 degrees in the shade provided the perfect atmosphere for Streeton to capture the hot, atmospheric quality of Australia.

Arthur Streeton (Australia 1867–1943), Golden summer, Eaglemont 1889. Oil on canvas, 81.3 x 152.6 cm. Purchased 1995.

Arthur Streeton (Australia 1867–1943), The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) 1890. Oil on canvas, 76.7 x 51.2 cm. Purchased 1961.

Arthur Streeton's visions of the landscape have defined an image of Australia. 'Fire’s on' in particular is considered his greatest evocation of the country's heat and sunlight. Painted a year after the artist left Melbourne for Sydney, it constitutes a radical new type of landscape in his oeuvre. Its vertical composition and the high horizon line bring focus to the steep terrain with precarious rocks and dead tree-trunks. The painting captures a critical moment during the construction of a railway line across the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney: the death of a railway worker in an explosion. 'Fire's on' was the warning call before the blast, as the gang dynamited the Lapstone Tunnel through the hillside. The human drama of the painting, however, is overshadowed by the heroism of the landscape itself.

Jane Clark, Deputy Chairman, Sotheby's Australia, discusses Arthur Streeton's work from the Hawkesbury district.

Australian composer Marshall Hall was an advocate for Australian Impressionist art and an admirer of Arthur Streeton, buying several of his works. Streeton returned the compliment with this searching portrait.

This painting was one of Streeton’s few nods to symbolism. His allegorical Spirit of the Drought is placed on an Impressionist landscape and to that landscape he remained true.

Both Roberts and Condor painted the breathtaking view from Eaglemont Hill across the Yarra Valley to the Dandenongs but Streeton made it his own in magnificent blue and gold panoramas.

Arthur Streeton was a fan of the English poet Percy Shelley as revealed in this painting’s title. Immediately hailed as a masterpiece, the painting’s reputation has endured.

Arthur Streeton and Sydney were each other’s gift. Sydney provided the perfect outdoor subjects for an Impressionist and Streeton become the champion of Sydney Harbour, painting it in all its moods.

It is astonishing to think that Streeton was only twenty-four years old when he painted ‘Fire’s on’, a work that remains one of the great icons of Australian landscape painting. When Streeton wrote to his friend Frederick McCubbin (1855–1917) about the work he was undertaking in the Blue Mountains, his excitement and ambition were palpable. It was the quintessentially Australian landscape and light that inspired him: ‘the vast hill of bright sandstone’ crowned by bush and the ‘deep blue azure heaven’.1Streeton was also taken with the fact that this landscape was the location of one of the engineering feats of the late nineteenth century, the construction of the ‘Zig Zag’ railway line across the Great Dividing Range and a new tunnel that would make this part of the country more accessible. Towards the end of 1891 Streeton spent three months at Glenbrook in the Blue Mountains undertaking numerous sketches and watercolours. By the time he came to paint ‘Fire’s on’, he had familiarised himself with the terrain and was following the development of the railway tunnel with interest. In Streeton’s letter to Roberts in December 1891 he conveyed a tension between his enthusiastic response to the landscape and the dangers involved in the work being undertaken. I arrive at my cutting, ‘the fatal cutting’, and inwardly rejoice at the prosperous warmth all glowing before me as I descend and re-ascend the opposite side up to my shady, shelving, sandstone rock, perched high up … 12 o’clock … and now I hear ‘Fire, fire’s on’, from the gang close by … BOOM! and then rumbling of rock, the navvy under the rock with me, and watching says, ‘Man killed’.2 On the one hand the scale of the landscape and the historic activity of constructing the railway may be seen as an expression of a heroic, nationalistic viewpoint. Yet ‘Fire’s on’ is a complex work, far removed from picturesque or pristine views of the land or people triumphing against the odds. Instead Streeton conveys a clear-eyed view of the pell-mell local scrub and the precarious rocks, dead tree-trunks and random scatter of stones on the steep hillside. On the right, it is as though a layer of earth has been peeled back by human progress to reveal the dazzling white sandstone, ochre soil and gaping mouth of the tunnel. Above the tunnel, delicately drawn figures are dwarfed by the environment, dissolving into its heat haze, while the figures below reveal the perilous nature of their endeavour. Compared with depictions of similar subjects on the theme of human labour in the landscape, it is notable that in ‘Fire’s on’ people are not the main focus. Instead the human drama is enmeshed with the towering, implacable presence of the land. Ultimately it is Streeton’s passionate feeling for the environment as a whole and the heat and light of an Australian summer, conveyed through expressive brushwork, a daring compositional structure and intense, luminous colour, that would be an inspiration for generations of Australian painters to follow. Deborah Hart 1 Letter published in R.H. Croll, Smike to Bulldog: letters from Sir Arthur Streeton to Tom Roberts, Sydney: Ure Smith, 1946, pp. 20–3. 2 Letter published in R.H. Croll, Tom Roberts: father of Australian landscape painting, Melbourne: Robertson & Mullens, 1935, pp. 187–9.

Harry Garlick painted The drover in response to the ‘Federation drought’, which began in 1895 and reached its climax in the summer of 1901–02. Officially lasting until 1903, the drought had a devastating effect on the sheep, cattle and wheat-farming industries throughout much of Australia. Garlick had painted earlier responses to the drought, such as Drought stricken1902 (present whereabouts unknown). It is possible that The drover was painted in the Orange or Bathurst regions of western New South Wales where Garlick was born and lived until 1896. In the heat of the midday sun a drover leads his flock along an arid stock route, the artist’s use of perspective emphasising the distance between the drover and his flock and the hills on the horizon. The drover is indicative of Garlick’s interest in pastoral scenes. As a young man he travelled each week from Orange to Bathurst to attend painting classes with Sydney painter Arthur Collingridge. After relocating to Sydney from Orange in 1896 he attended night classes with Julian Ashton, worked as a clerk and occasionally published drawings and cartoons in the Bulletin. Garlick was one of a number of artists, including Julian Ashton, Sydney Long, Charles Conder and Arthur Streeton, who visited Griffiths’s farm on the Richmond side of the Hawkesbury River on outdoor painting trips.

Charles Conder would have sat right by the water’s edge when he painted this joyous impression of Melbourne bay-side activity. Much of the scene is dominated by water – the reflective shallows of the foreground comprising a significant portion of the composition. Behind the strip of sand and rock a band of ocean stretches to the horizon.1 In this scene Conder explores the elements of light and colour and depicts the activity of visitors to the beach. Women in long dresses search for seashells, a small group watches a sailboat travel across the bay and a child paddles in the foreground. Working primarily in Sydney and Melbourne between 1884 and 1890, Conder suggested in much of his work the subtle moods and poetic qualities of nature. He painted with the energy and enthusiasm of a young man, delighting in the visual world around him and spurred on by the friendly rivalry of his painting companions, Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. In Ricketts Point, Beaumaris his bold composition and free application of paint combine to form a picture that still looks fresh almost 120 years after it was completed. 1 Mary Eagle identifies this location as Ricketts Point. See Mary Eagle, The oil paintings of Charles Conder in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1997, p. 61.

By 1882 a railway had been constructed between Melbourne and the township of Box Hill, and in 1885 Tom Roberts, Frederick McCubbin and Louis Abrahams first visited the area to paint. The artists set up camp on land owned by a local farmer and friend to the artists, David Houston.1 Along with other artists, including Arthur Streeton and Jane Sutherland, the group painted the local bushland. Roberts made a number of works in this area, such as his well known The artist’s camp 1886, while Streeton painted Evening with bathers 1888 (both in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne). In A Sunday afternoon Roberts depicts an intimate picnic. Framed by spindly gums and bathed in dappled light, a young couple relax in the bush, the woman reading to her companion from a newspaper. A belief in the health benefits of the country air was becoming popular with city dwellers who sought recreational activities in the bush or by the ocean. Roberts’s observant eye has resulted in such small details in this scene as the trail of smoke from the man’s pipe, the dark wine bottle on the crisp white cloth and the light falling softly on the leaves of the eucalypts. 1 Leigh Astbury, ‘Memory and desire: Box Hill 1855–88’, in Terence Lane (ed.), Australian impressionism, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2007, p. 51.

The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) is an iconic image of the ‘pioneering spirit’ that underpinned Australian nationalist attitudes of the late nineteenth century. Although most Australians lived in coastal cities and towns, it was the bush that was used as a symbol of Australian sentiment. In The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) Arthur Streeton depicted these iconic elements of the land. The ‘blue and gold’ of sky and earth are encapsulated by the great scale of the sky, the golden grass and shimmering light, a slender silhouetted gum tree and a bush pioneer. By 1888 a railway had been constructed between Melbourne and the suburban fringe at Heidelberg. Towards the end of that year Streeton had set up ‘camp’ in an old house on Eaglemont estate, which was located close to Heidelberg at Mount Eagle. Mr C. M. Davies, part owner of the estate, had offered the house to the artist.1 Early in 1889 Streeton was joined by Charles Conder and Tom Roberts. The camp provided the perfect working environment–a reasonably isolated bush location that was still close to the city. Streeton found much inspiration in the area, nicknaming Eaglemont ‘our hill of gold’. Jack Whelan was the caretaker and farmer of the Eaglemont estate and shared the house with the artists over the summer of 1888–89. In The selector’s hut (Whelan on the log) Streeton has presented Whelan as a bush selector–a type of pioneering ‘hero’ who farmed the large properties of landowners. 1 Terence Lane, ‘Painting on the hill of gold: Heidelberg 1888–90’, in Terence Lane (ed.), Australian impressionism, Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2007, p. 123.