“SALT LAKE DREAMING”

Of all Australia's varied landscapes, I particularly love desert salt lakes, because the earth is red (in many parts of central Australia) and the lakes are white, grey/blue or even pink - what's not to like about such wonderful contrast?

And the settings are so varied too. Some are surrounded by scrubby dark trees, some by blue waters reflecting the sky, and some, like in this painting, are backed by dreamy violet horizons in a hazy distance..

I like showing all the detail in what many people would regard as a dead and boring landscape. The salt lake itself carries evidence of life, bits of decayed vegetable matter, bones, fencing wire, even crayfish pots sometimes! - it's amazing what they can contain and hide. And then there is the red earth - this too is richly textured, covered with the tracks of small creatures, snake trails, burrows, scattered bones, ant hills, and bits of detritus of all kinds. So in this painting, I've tried to show all this variation and detail without taking away from the essentially dreamy scene. It makes it interesting to me, that you only really see the whole landscape at first glance, but then at your leisure, (maybe when you're on a sofa with drink in hand), you will find your eye will wander lazily over the artwork, and you will slowly discover all sorts of things that you didn't notice before. That's just how it is being in this country....

The artwork is technically Mixed Media, but it is largely painted with Professional Quality Acrylic paint together with a number of other artist grade mark making materials, crayons, inks and more, to give the layers plenty of depth and interest.

This original painting is already stretched ready to hang and it can be mailed to you free of charge if you live in a major city or regional centre of Australia. If you live in remote areas or overseas, I can have it sent to you free of charge, unstretched and rolled in a mailing tube. Because it has been stretched before, it is an easy matter for a framer to restretch it in your location. Alternately, if you would still like to receive it ready to hang, there may be an additional charge. Please enquire so we can decide what shipping method suits you best.

A Limited Edition Print has been made of this painting - you will find it on this website under Prints - Australian Outback. A Limited Edition print does not detract from the artwork, in fact it tends to increase its value, because there is only ever one Original (and YOU may be lucky enough to have it!). However, these high quality prints do have their place in the scheme of things. You can have a larger size than the original artwork, which suits larger homes, and because prints are much cheaper than the original, but still have the same WOW factor, you can get a lot more "bang for your buck" when you are buying art. These are such high quality prints that most people can not even tell that it is not the original! For more information about this option, you will find "Saltlake Dreaming" in the Prints - Australian Outback section.