Art - Bill Hensen (Thu 10 Jul 2008)

Untitled (Shoalhaven Landscape) (Detail) - APH / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Bill Hensen on Art:

The greatness of art comes from the ambiguities ... it stops us from knowing what to think

via The greatness of art comes from the ambiguities (Thu 10 Jul 2008) by Bill Hensen.

Art - Arthur Boyd (Dec 1995)

Untitled (Shoalhaven Landscape) (Detail) - APH / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Arthur Boyd on Art:

Art doesn't alter things. It points things out, but it doesn't alter them. It can't, no matter what a painter wants to do.

via Beneath the Landscape, Independent Monthly, Dec 1995/Jan 1996 by David Langsam.

Art - Tom Roberts (Tue 08 July 1890)

Untitled - NGA / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Tom Roberts on Art:

by making art the perfect expression of one time and one place, it becomes art for all times and all places

via Tom Roberts, Letter to the Editor - The Argus, 4 July 1890, p. 10 by Tom Roberts.

Australia - Nisha Shrestha (Fri 11 Mar 2016)

painting (Fred Williams) - NGA / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Nisha Shrestha on Australia:

Australia is a wonderful place to be but we all shared the same fears. Uncertainty about a new land, leaving family in our homeland.

But we all also share the same hope for a better future. To strive and work hard for our children.

via Western Sydney migrant women find bonds in Mother's Spice at ICE in Parramatta by Lenny Ann Low.

Small - Benjamin Hardy (Dec 2015)

Untitled (Shoalhaven Landscape) (Tapestry) - APH / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Benjamin Hardy on Small:

Small things - if not corrected - become big things, always.

via If You're Too Busy For These 5 Things: Your Life Is More Off-Course Than You Think by Benjamin Hardy.

Australia - Marcus Clarke (1893)

landscape - NGA / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Marcus Clarke on Australia:

In Australia alone is to be found the Grotesque, the Weird,
the strange scribblings of Nature learning how to write. Some
see no beauty in our trees without shade, our flowers without
perfume, our birds who cannot fly, and our beasts who have
not yet learned to walk on all fours. But the dweller in the
wilderness acknowledges the subtle charm of this fantastic land
of monstrosities. He becomes familiar with the beauty of
loneliness. Whispered to by the myriad tongues of the wilderness,
he learns the language of the barren and the uncouth, and can
read the hieroglyphics of haggard gum-trees, blown into odd
shapes, distorted with fierce hot winds, or cramped with cold
nights, when the Southern Cross freezes in a cloudless sky of icy
blue. The phantasmagoria of that wild dreamland termed the
Bush interprets itself, and the Poet of our desolation begins to
comprehend why free Esau loved his heritage of desert sand
better than all the bountiful richness of Egypt.

via Poems, by Adam Lindsay Gordon - Preface (1893 Edition) by Marcus Clarke (Displayed at the Entrance to the Great Hall at Parliament House, Canberra).

Art - Micheal Leunig (Fri 18 Jul 2008)

Untitled (Shoalhaven Landscape) (Detail) - APH / Canberra (Sun 10 Jan 2016)

Michael Leunig on Art:

Art is about the messy and marvellous business of coming to your senses and also, to the senses of the world

via A brush with Arthur Boyd by Michael Leunig.