Journeys into the ‘You Beaut Country’
In 2011 John Olsen moved from Owlswood where he had lived for many years to a new property called Hidden Lake in the southern highlands of NSW. His new purposely built studio with heated floor sits snugly on the edge of the large lake; every window affords interesting views of the country side.
The peaceful tranquillity of Hidden Lake attracts a variety of mammals and water birds. Black swans and pelicans glide across the surface of the water, cormorants dry their wings on the low branches of the willow trees, coots, spoonbills and egrets forage around the shoreline and amongst the bull rushes which provide excellent roosting.
The native vegetation around the water’s edge forms an enclosure separating the surrounding countryside. Kangaroos and rabbits nibble the grasses and cattle roam freely. Clumps of different perennials grow according to their colours, and agapanthus and untamed grasses sway gently in the breeze. Nature’s colours mirror the artist’s palette, cadmium yellow, cobalt green, viridian, emerald and sap green.
As twilight descends on Hidden Lake, tall pine trees cast their long ghostly shadows across the water’s edge almost reaching the studio. During the darker and colder months a low mist sometimes rolls silently across the calm water, all is quite except for the spasmodic raspy calling of the ubiquitous black duck and the shriek of the ever nervous purple swamphen. These splendid birds with their red bill, dark blue purple collar and long legs with orange feet wander on the edges of the lake, among reeds and on floating vegetation. White water lilies with pale yellow centres float gently on the water.
Olsen’s studio like most creative spaces is warm and inviting and sometimes chaotic. He says ‘it is where the act of contemplation is incorporated into the process of painting’
Stretched canvases are stacked in racks and rest on the paint splattered floor, used water colour dishes clutter the painting table, opened boxes of charcoal are stacked with pastels and coloured pencils. A variety of brushes and tubes of squashed oil paint cover every conceivable horizontal surface. Paintings in various stages of completion rest on easels. The large desk is covered with overflowing boxes of photographs, correspondence letters, mostly hand written and pens, pencils, stamps, envelopes and bottles of ink. A superb Lucian Freud etching hangs above a stainless steel sink and a well-used leather arm chair sits in the corner of the room surrounded by piles of books stacked on low tables. On top of the book cases antique Balinese wooden figures and Aboriginal artefacts stand with pottery collected from Majorca.
Mornings are wonderful, as the lake is illuminated by early sunlight the paddling feet of water birds causes little stir as the dawn chorus begins.
The ever changing Hidden Lake is John Olsen’s Giverny. It offers him spiritual solace, a place to live and work immersed in unspoilt natural surroundings. A place he often sits for hours contemplating, reading, drawing and painting.
John Olsen, the youthful octogenarian continues his interest in animism and its metaphoric extension. Journeys into ‘The You Beaut Country’ is a series of seductive works which vividly convey a sense of place, where land and light revel in joyful movement.
Ken McGregor 2016
