Russell Philip – Landscape and Memory
Russell Philip’s Landscape and Memory – a survey exhibition covering Burra works over the last 30 years.
Russell Philip purchased his 1840s miner’s cottage in Burra 30 years ago when he was art teacher at Burra Community School. It didn’t take long for his interest to be aroused in the miners’ dugouts in “Creek Street”, and the surrounding landscape of denuded hills, seen from his back yard.
Russell’s Burra landscapes, drawn and painted through the intervening years, are on display in this retrospective survey of his work. In them memories surface and abide, stimulated by precise visual impressions mysterious with the qualities of a past world.
His intense and beautiful works indicate a consciousness of the fragility of the past and awareness of how quickly evidence can disappear, through weathering and ongoing development. Such is this important survey of time passing and memories evoked.
Creating a visual representation is a way of forming an understanding of what the eye sees. Russell’s works can be linked to those carried out by artists who were part of expeditions of discovery in early journeys and voyages. Yet he takes investigations into an imaginative realm where dream-like fragments emerge, as if unbidden, giving entry to the mind and intention of the artist.
Drawing for Township Colour Pencil 1978 Private Collection
Fire Road Colour Pencil:Graphite 1987 Private Collection
Waterhole (South Terrace) Colour Pencil 1988 Private Collection
Waterhole II (South Terrace) Oil on canvas 1989 $4,500
Boord Street Ruin Colour Pencil 1989 Private Collection
Boord Street Colour Pencil 1990 Private Collection
Creek Street Frottage Colour Pencil 1990 Private Collection
Mt. Stein Frottage Colour Pencil 1991 $800
Mt. Stein Frottage II Colour Pencil 1991 $800
Dry Season Colour Pencil 1992 Private Collection
Still Life (Kooringa View) Colour Pencil 1992 Private Collection
Arboreal Colour Pencil 1992 Private Collection
Spirit of Creek Street (Mitchell Flat) Oil on panels 1993 $4,500
Old Morgan Road Colour Pencil 1994 $500 – SOLD
Drawing for Little Pond Colour Pencil 1995 $450
Creek Street Landscape Colour Pencil 1995 Private Collection
Mt. Stein View (1992) Oil on canvas 2015 $850 – SOLD
Autumn Landscape Oil on canvas 2015 $850
Getting Close (Haystacks) Oil on canvas 2016 $1,500
Drawing for “Quarry” Colour Pencil 2017 $650
Landscape and Memory (Quarry II) Oil on canvas 2018 $1,500 -SOLD
Getting Closer (Township) Oil on canvas 2019 $1,650
Artist’s statement
Landscape and Memory is an exhibition of colour pencil drawings and paintings which have been selected to reflect a long-standing interest in the unique Burra landscape and aspects of its European history. The Burra creek drawings explore the Mitchell Flat area and portions of South Terrace, the banks of which, were used by the miners as dwellings before the floods of the 1850’s. All of the works on display also betray a fascination with the subtle beauty and ever-changing colours of the local environment at various times throughout the day and year. Many of the works have been returned on loan from their current owners to provide examples of these explorations over the past 40 years.
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to the Burra Regional Art Gallery and their sponsors for their continued support of local and regional artists and specifically to Kerry Youde, Lisa Smedley, Lis Jones Ingman and Barry Wright. Thanks also to my sister Meredith Laing who has worked tirelessly to assist in ensuring that the exhibition was presented in a timely manner and to all private collectors who have kindly lent their artworks to provide a more complete survey of the theme.
