High Country 
April 2019
Australian National Botanic Gardens Gallery - Canberra
Artist Statement
I caught the High Country fever from my father Kevin Byrne who had
worked on the Snowy Hydro Scheme as a carpenter in the early 1950’s. Following
that my parents introduced the family to the Australian Alps in the 60’s and I
was hooked!
I have been in awe of our southern alpine regions since my first encounter with its many and varied blue sky that bounces off the snow and the complex patterns produced by the beautiful Australian snow gums of the ridges and valleys.
Of particular fascination to me are the ancient granite tors that punctuate the space between the dominant colours of this wintery environment, the blue of the sky and the white of the snow. These granite sentinels are like gods of the High Country, with their atmospheric halos of cloud and fading sky, in differing blues of the alternating seasons. Cobalt, cerulean or ultramarine is displayed depending on the weather being dished up by Mother Nature, who rules this alpine region with a granite fist.
My art is not trying to reproduce a photographic likeness of the High Country but rather capture the essence of what it was about the environment that stopped me in my tracks. The boldness, the grandeur, the simplicity of colour. The contrast between the intensity of the blue sky set against the dark greys and blacks of the granite boulders, played off against the high key of the white snow with its glistening surface… it is sublime!
The alpine terrain is quite frankly awe inspiring, venturing out there
away from the maddening crowd just you and your skiing buddy, with the snow,
sky and granite.
It’s a stark and sometimes bleak landscape but always begging to be painted.
I have also been inspired by two artists that have preserved their
Australian alpine experiences on canvas; Eugene von Guérard who in 1862 painted an astoundingly
realistic rendition of the ‘North-east view from the northern top of Mount
Kosciusko’ and then there’s Fred Williams with ‘Snow Storm, Kosciusko’ his 1977
semi-abstract uniquely modern perspective of the alps .
I don’t attempt to paint in the style of
either of these magnificent artists but am inspired like them to also record my
alpine experiences through art.
I hope
you enjoy my High Country artistic adventures.
Janita