The Panorama

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Outback Australia landscapes are so enormous they swallow you whole. Time and space have a meaning of their own in the Flinders Ranges of South Australia – where farms or rather ‘stations’ run from 20 to 100 thousand acres each and the rocks of the ranges bear witness to ancient seascapes 600 million years ago.

Despite this, a brave artist decided to paint this hauntingly beautiful landscape.  To do it justice, he created a panorama of the view from the highest mountain peak in the ranges, St Mary’s Peak.  It’s on display in a purpose-built gallery in Hawker, South Australia.  The circular canvas, 33 m circumference by 4 m high, is so realistic you need to stand still and stare to take it all in. The greens on the slopes of Wilpena Pound speak to Nature’s capacity to thrive despite adversity. Your eye then travels beyond to a birds-eye view of range after range of contorted rock faces in every hue from white to green and purple, lying at absurd angles.  Nothing is horizontal. It’s as if mighty forces bubbled and tore at the Earth’s crust, folding and buckling upon itself, pushing and pulling before spewing the mangled bits up and out. These strange Medusa stone mountains and hills stand today for all to wonder at the ancient forces that wrought this landscape.

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As your eyes slide lower, colourful birds and yellow-footed wallabies emerge from the canvas, and the leaves almost flutter

It’s a harsh land, without a doubt, but with the soft touch of a paintbrush and a quiet eye – it becomes a beautiful land, worthy of any panorama artist and panorama gallery.

Leaving we recall the artist’s own words where he tells of a conversation with an an Indigenous man who told him:

”You’ll be back. The land calls you.”

 

18 April 2023