Now on display at Fyshwick’s Humble House Gallery, Sydney artist Chrissie Lloyd’s new exhibition, Flinders Ranges to Birdsville, depicts some of Australia’s most mesmerising rural landscapes in an expressive contemporary realist style.
Lloyd has long been fascinated by and drawn to the Flinders Ranges, Lake Eyre, and the Channel Country of south-west Queensland.
“I’m just in awe of some of these places I’ve been to and seen from the air and the ground,” she said.
On her travels, Lloyd was inspired to paint an array of scenery: from expansive red dunes, imposing mountains, and dramatically coloured flooded waterways through to roadside fridges and gnarled fenceposts.
“Like many artists, it’s just something that seeps into you, and if you’re passionate about painting you can feel the essence of the place creep into you, and you want to capture it,” she said.
“I could paint for another 100 years and never run out of subject matter from the areas I have highlighted in this exhibition.”
More than half of the exhibition’s 32 paintings portray the Flinders Ranges, capturing the region’s mountains, flora such as gigantic red river gums sitting in dry creek beds, and emus.
While on location, Lloyd found inspiration from the geology of the Flinders Ranges – the ridges of the hills, the protruding rocks, and the wonderful depth of rich red oxide that comes through.
Similarly, the red river gums stood out in the landscape as a very sculptural form.
“From time to time these creek beds have water in them and they bruise the bases of the trees, which give them this wonderful gnarly dark colour,” she said, “and above that is an incredible almost white ghost gum effect of the trunks of the trees themselves.”
Lloyd was also inspired to paint a padlocked roadside refrigerator that served as a street library.
“To see this refrigerator standing out in the middle of nowhere, to me that is so quirky, that is so Australian, but it’s providing a purpose for the people who live in the area,” she said.
Lloyd has also captured the breathtaking beauty of both Lake Eyre and the Channel Country in flood.
“The colour of the water goes from the softest of aqua to a very deep veridian and emerald,” she said, “and sand dunes advance down to the very edge of the water because there is such a vast expanse when it’s in flood.
“You’ve got over 1,100 very long sand dunes, and they are all parallel, so from the air it is just the most amazing sight.”
After starting painting in her 20s, Lloyd put down her brush for a few years before returning to her art and has now painted seriously for over 30 years. She has developed her craft through a combination of attending lectures, workshops, and being mentored by decorated artist Patrick Carroll for a decade.
She also studied five years of portraiture and five years of life drawing with the Royal Art Society of NSW.
Flinders Ranges to Birdsville by Chrissie Lloyd is on display at Humble House Gallery, Fyshwick, 5 March to 10 April; humblehouse.com.au
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