Mixed Media on canvas. 122 x 92cm
‘Tree of Knowledge Series’
This is a series based upon a tree located in the township of Barcaldine in western Queensland. The tree’s significance was where sheep shearers met to air their grievances at the meagre wages and work conditions they were being forced to endure on the properties, and to organise a group revolt. This led to the great shearers strikes of the 1890’s that became quite violent at times. This group militancy led to the formation of the Australian labour movement, the formation of the Australian Labor Party and to the first Labor Government in the World in the State of Queensland.
I grew up further north and west of here, but we as a family drove past the tree, noting it’s significance in our irregular journeys to the coast. In my works, I tried to evoke the dynamics of events and time by taking each completed painting to be the immediate inspiration from the preceding one. Creating a kind of sequence, leading from quite a realistic depiction to a completely abstract response.
