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Leichhardt's 1844-45 route
2011 ReconnaisanceTrip
2012-13Trip
BILL
GANNON
This project has taken me many miles
in retracing Leichhardt’s 1844-45 trek,
reading his diaries and journals, and
imagining his twists and turns. I have
valued that journey and the many
interesting people, landscapes, and
thoughts along the way.
My fieldwork is mostly pencil and ink
on heavy watercolour paper. Over the
years required to follow the length of the
overland expedition, I made hundreds of
field sketches.
I then prepared 15 studio oil paintings
on board that correlate to the 15 month
journey. Some of my works were
consciously influenced by the German
Romantics, notably Casper David Friedrich
(1774-1840). Each painting and its title
depict a key event or thought for that
month of the expedition. They show
landforms, waterways, biology, and skies
of that part of the journey. The themes
are universal and enduring – hope,
collaboration, struggle, loss, grief and
recommencement.
Landscape at the Coburg Peninsula
29 x 42 cm
pencil and ink on watercolour paper
2012
