BANKSIA MOUNTAIN Paintings by Kate Elsey
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BANKSIA MOUNTAIN Paintings by Kate Elsey Exhibition Opened By The Honourable Colin Barnett MLA Premier of Western Australia 22 August – 20 September, 2015
Brookfield Place, Level 1/137 St Georges Terrace, Perth WA 6000
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Banksia Mountain You are the Stirling Ranges that beckon me and affirm the core of my existence - an unquenchable desire to understand, celebrate and protect you and all those things at the brink of being confined to a museum exhibit.
The paintings of Banksia Mountain are my homage to a land saved from greed and standing tall and magnificent through the test of time. Being there was really special for me, like a new language spoken in silence.
A small dot on the map I am so much smaller than you. You are enormous beyond belief, over a billion years old, unique with unusual creatures and plants found no-where else on earth.
In their totality the works represent the cycle of life in the Stirling Ranges. Individually they depict my interpretation of four seasons and what I experienced during my search for the rare and unique species.
Thank you for being a life museum, my living muse. I chose you. I hope in a way that you chose me too. I visited you as a child and assumed you would be here forever. Now — I know you a little better. I understand that you began so long ago. Now that I know just a little of you — I am not so sure you will be here forever. And that matters. A billion years and more of knowledge lies within you. Where do I start? I heard that you are at risk of extinction. So I went in search of the feather leaf banksia and then for the rare anatona. I felt your seasons and met some of your elusive creatures A wedge tailed eagle and a striding goanna, carnaby cockatoos and together with rare ground parrots drew lines in the orange earth. I returned and returned again and only then interpreted what I saw and imagined in the past and the future with and without you.
OPPOSITE: CANDELABRA, OIL ON LINEN, 244 X 183 CM
The size, although not unusual for me to paint big, is a challenge as the height of the linen often expanded to the point whereby the landscape concept became a ‘portrait’. I think the vertical nature of the sea of banksias climbing the mountain side emerged in the portraits of nature’s seasons. I went into the Ranges during the different seasons and there is a dramatic change of colour and temperature. Sounds obvious yet I had never experienced such dramatic difference in the seasons growing up in Perth. So on one level, Banksia Mountain is all about that, trying to the capture the extreme conditions and survival. The heat in summer is just so intense it’s bewildering how things survive really. I tested it out and sat in the middle of the heathland without shade for as long as I could bare. It was only seconds before I could feel the burning on my skin. From a distance it was all
blue and hot and stark yet filled with life! Up close it was red and wandoo woodlands full of bees. Autumn is so transitional — a hint of what is to come. The endless green of the grasstree filled hills was a prominent feature. The goannas were hiding, the cold and the clouds were slowly building up. The afternoon arrived with a sudden change from a bright morning. The grey-blue of the mountain peaks muted against the forming grey-blue sky and clouds. This is when I saw the incredible blankets of mist form almost instantly! Winter is a whole new story. This piece has the snowcapped peaks in abstraction, and the brooding deep blackness of the wet limbs… the painting is about nature’s engine room slowing down for hibernation. I used limited tones and a bold structural black. Spring is an interesting season to interpret. To bring out the myriad of flowering plants as well as the everlasting presence of trunks and branches of the wandoo trees and ancient banksia.
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I’ll hold onto this fragile beauty in return you must nurture it for generations to come
I’ll bear f ires and freeze over
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I’ll put food on the plants to feed your creatures
and soil replenished from your toil
I’ll do all this so you can see the beauty that is reflected in your nature
OPPOSITE: SUMMER, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN AUTUMN, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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WINTER, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN SPRING, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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I visited the Stirling Ranges in April — the expanse of numerous rugged peaks reveals a place as ancient as the flora is captivating. The heathlands and aromas take my breath away. I take a path at the base of Mt Magog, a mountain formed from what was once a sea over two billion years ago. It is months since the heathland goanna crossed my path and the last bee was one of thousands that covered a woodland of flowering mallee. I will also never forget the greatest bird that in arching up into the sky split the summer mountain into red dust.
But today, what I feel is like being home. The comfort of a warm breeze through wandoo woodlands and the constant buzz of invisible insects stay with me in time with the rhythm of my heartbeat.
And then the mist approaches covering the day as if autumn was here. The mountain, soft and less foreboding, rugged rock faces softened by haze, became — Koikyeunuruff — mist around the mountains.
My legs do not kneel or stand without metal devices, and nature’s show is asking me to play. The scene needs a truthful interpretation. Armed with what I have and what I feel right now, I start with branches, leaves, my metal scrapper, ink charcoal and the twigs that fall onto the linen. A refection of pure energy emerges.
I would return from the journey to my studio with a bigger picture of how the seasons, the creatures and flora are so interdependent and unimaginable.
TOP: CHARCOAL AND INK SKETCH ON LOCATION. BOTTOM LEFT: MALLEE BEES, JANUARY 2015 BOTTOM RIGHT; AUTUMN HUES, OIL ON LINEN168X183CM (DETAIL)
It all became the beginning points for paintings that would emerge from sitting with the sense of infinity and being right now.
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Coloured from the light Challenged by the dark Captivating life
Spreading its perfectly formed seed To be mimicked
Since the day the stars Bellowed their dust
OPPOSITE: WHERE THE INFINITE DWELLS, 168CM X300CM OIL ON LINEN
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There is nowhere for the prey
To hide in a heathland citadel
Where the eagles watch and stay An innocent creatures spell
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Downward a spiralling beast Slicing the wind rush
Swooping a captive feast
Then gone, left only red dust
OPPOSITE: THE EAGLES CITADEL, 168CM X 300CM OIL ON LINEN
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A whisper coming through the valleys A mist as subtle as silence Sweeps over the blue sky
To sit on the peaks of mountain faces Winding through the cooling canopy
As giant birds fly home before closing time
OPPOSITE: MIST AROUND THE MOUNTAIN (KOIKYENUNURUFF), 168 CM X 300 CM OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: AUTUMN HUES,168CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: NATURES RANDOM, 168CMX183CM OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: ARCHITECTURE OF SOLANDRI HILL,168CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: THE LAST BEE, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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The reality of plants when up close and personal is they have all the answers to life. They are silently evolving and rejuvenating, crafting their mechanisms for survival over eons and voila there I am amongst the greatest living museum. My paintings are formed out of oil paint scraped with a blade on the linen — the picture plain is the palette and is reapplied to create a textured almost sculptural form. The paint becomes the landscape of interpreted flora and fauna. Behind the etched quality of the paint is a hint of antiquity of ancient
time and an urgency of what time the living force has left on this ever burning rotating planet.
TOP TO BOTTOM THEN LEFT TO RIGHT: SKETCH OF MALLEE FLOWER SKETCH OF BANKSIA MACHINE CLOSING TIME AT THE MUSEUM (DETAIL)
Only now do I see the overwhelming shape of a dominant banksia trunk or the repetition of a mechanical styled bee loving mallee flower or cog in the banksia machine From sketches out in the landscape to little scribbles throughout the day I reflect on my muse, with a bold tonal repressed impression consolidating the bio-mechanical triumph that is the engine of the ranges.
OPPOSITE: CARNABY’S CALL, 107 X 153CM OIL ON LINEN
KATE AND SOLANDRI PHOTO ARCHITECTURE OF SOLANDRI HILL (DETAIL)
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Mallee flowers Bees haven
Cogs of nature’s engine
OPPOSITE: CLOSING TIME AT THE MUSEUM, 107 X 153CM OIL ON LINEN
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Like a turning wheel
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and soil replenished from your toil Earth’s fervent worker
OPPOSITE: THE BANKSIA MACHINE, 168CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: TRACKS OF TIME, 122CM X 152CM OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: BANKSIA TAPESTRY, 122CM X 152CM OIL ON LINEN
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Up folding jewels
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from an ancient sea
Tethered through time
to a rugged mountain bed
OPPOSITE: ANCIENT SEA BED MT MAGOG, 122 X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: THE LITTLE ANATONA, A RARE LIGHT, 122 X 183CM OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: CANDELABRA, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: STUDY BANKSIA RANGES STIRLING RANGES, 122 X 92 OIL ON LINEN LITTLE CANDELABRA, 122 X 92 OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: THE LITTLE PARROTS, 92 X 122 OIL ON LINEN
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THIS PAGE: THE LAST BEE, 244CM X 183CM OIL ON LINEN OPPOSITE: AT THE EDGE OF THE ROAD, 97CM X 298CM OIL ON LINEN
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Acknowledgements In particular I thank the Indigenous peoples of the South West, the traditional custodians, who have cared for the Stirling Ranges National Park, Koikyenunuruff for thousands of years. I pay respect to your elders of the past, present and future. And the heroes speaking out for our voiceless natural lands. This includes the scientists and the passionate people of WA who work to care for what will otherwise disappear into museum exhibits. Of course Gary, Linton and the team at Linton and Kay Galleries — a special thank you for believing in my vision. And to Mo for always looking around the next corner. Thank you my resilient beautiful goanna levitating across hot dry land lifting my spirits and reminding me to keep searching.
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List of Paintings NO.
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TITLE
MEDIA
SIZE
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Candelabra
Oil on linen
244 x 183
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The Last Bee
Oil on linen
244 x 183
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At the Edge of the Road
Oil on linen
97 x 298
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Tracks Of Time
Oil on linen
122 x 152
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The Little Anatona A Rare Light
Oil on linen
122 x 183
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Ancient Sea Bed Mt Magog
Oil on linen
122 x 183
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Banksia Tapestry
Oil on linen
122 x 152
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Carnaby’s Call
Oil on linen
107 x 152
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Koi Kyeunu-Ruff (Mist Around The Mountain)
Oil on linen
168 x 300
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The Eagles Citadel
Oil on linen
168 x 300
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Natures Random
Oil on linen
168 x 183
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Architecture Of Solandri Hill
Oil on linen
168 x 183
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Study for Banksia Stirling Ranges
Oil on linen
122 x 92
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Where the Infinite Dwells
Oil on linen
168 x 300
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The Banksia Machine
Oil on linen
168 x 183
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Autumn Hues
Oil on linen
168 x 183
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Closing Time at the Museum
Oil on linen
107 x 152
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The Little Green Parrots (The Rarest Of All)
Oil on linen
92 x 122
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The Anatona
Oil on linen
122 x 92
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The Scarlet
Oil on linen
122 x 92
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Little Candelabra
Oil on linen
122 x 92
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Linton & Kay Galleries, Perth City The Old Perth Technical School Level One, 137 St Georges Terrace Perth | 08 6465 4314 www.lintonandkay.com.au Parking is available in King Street at Atrium parking or on St Georges Terrace opposite the Gallery at Wilson Parking. Gallery opening hours Mon–Sat 10–5pm, Sun 11–4pm