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Our Kitchen Table Art Expedition takes a great deal of inspiration from Eugene von Guerard. This Colonial artist made several trips through South West Victoria through what is now called the Kanawinka Geopark that spans from near Geelong to Mt Gambier. This is a volcanic landscape that has rich history and soil.

Our project started in May with our visit to von Guerard’s masterpiece Tower Hill at the Warrnambool Art Gallery, painted in 1855. Later that same decade he trekked to Mt Eccles and undertook drawing studies there as well. With this in mind we made our second expedition outside Macarthur to Mt Eccles. (You can get a better look at Eugene’s work by clicking on the image above to enlarge it)

We started at the top look out where the Explorers used drawings and iPads to record the environment. Breaking up into our Expedition Parties we made our way around the crater and down into the cave were our explorers observed the effect of darkness on their eyes as well as the sounds and smells inside the earth.
We were “blessed” with rain for most of our expedition but under the strong leadership of Mrs Lyles we still ventured on to the camping ground where the explorers we asked to find a solitary spot to contemplate Mt Eccles- without chattering, to listen, look, smell and wonder…..

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This wonderfully wet day of exploration provides us with the source for our next five weeks of work. I have begun my time with my next group: the Light Expedition Party. I am very interested to see what things we discover about our environment together…..

We’ve already noted how overcast days diffuse the light making shadows almost non-existent and how light rain seems to smudge light causing a loss of visual detail as the landscape recedes….

…… and on my way out of Macarthur I was met with a huge Rainbow, as if to mark the start of this new round of inquiry working with the Light Expedition Party over the next 5 weeks 🙂