South Western Queensland Drought Drawings 1984-85

Exhibited at Spring Hill Gallery, Brisbane in 1985, these are the remaining drawings from that period.

“Between 1984-86, I lived in Roma in South-Western Queensland, and assisted “one-teacher” schools from Dalby to Thargomindah during a severe drought. To break the drive, I’d sketch some of the animal victims of the drought or “road kill” on off-cuts of acid-free art paper, as an update of Nolan’s works from an earlier drought.” – Richard Dunlop, 1986

“I oscillate with my eyes backwards and forwards until I get the points of reference… the line is always wrong, never essential. My experience has taught me that you can only draw after you have painted for fifty years. Remember a child taking its first step, thinking “How far am I from my mother, will I fall?” Now having urged you to imagine that, I have adjusted your eyes like an optometrist. Now you can see.” – Oskar Kokoschka’s advice about starting a drawing offered to adult art students, 1962

“Painting is only worthwhile if you don’t know the outcome. When you start painting you must never know what the end product is going to be. You should end up with something looking at you which you have never seen before…  I like to change the medium every now and again so that I can work against it, so that I am not proficient at it – because in some way, I’m always worried by proficiency. It has so many dangers, especially as there is a certain kind of satisfaction in automatic response. You handle paint a certain way, you flick it this way and that way, and this often steals in unawares. You see, even the muscles learn tricks. Yes, you must fight against it because I suppose if a painting is worth anything it is supposed to come from some place inside yourself that you cannot get to through any other means.” – Sidney Nolan