KEN
ORCHARD Palmer landscapes
All works are ink, shellac and pastel on pages from the
Encyclopaedia Britannica or from Arid Zone Research – A History of Land Use in
Arid Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961
1 Xanthoreas
above Rathjen Gap. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid
Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
2 Dusk at
Kitticoola. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid
Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
3 Road out through Rathjen Gap,
Palmer 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed, 1898) 27.5 x 86 $2.200
4 From ravine to plain Kitticoola.
2003
pages from Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5 x 258 $4,500
5 Serpentine
tracks of Kitticoola. 2003
pages from
Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5 x 86 $2,200
6 Southern
face of Rathjen Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid
Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
7 High noon
in The Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid
Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
8 Palmer
skyscape 2002
pages from
Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5 x 129 $2,750
9 Among the
rocks at The Gap. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid
Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 86 $2,200
10 The strewn
tors of The Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from
Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5 x 86 $2,200
11 Palmer at
the equinox. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
12 Uprooted
tree above The Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica, (9th ed. 1898) 79
x 43 $2,750
13 Granite
tors above Milendella Creek, Palmer. 2002
pages fro Arid Zone Research – A
History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 167.5 $3,200
14 Wind blasted sheoak with distant tank,
Palmer. 2003
pages from Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO, Paris, 1961 27
x 86 $2,200
15 Late
summer, Palmer. 2003
pages from Arid Zone Research – A
History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 86 $2,200
16 Cloud
drift over The Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5
x 129 $2,750
17 View down to
The Gap from Scott Hill trig, 473m asl. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5 x 43 $1,350
18 Calvary in
absentia, Palmer. 2003
pages from Arid Zone Research – A
History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 86 $2,200
19 A view down
to the ruin, Palmer. 2003
pages from Arid Zone Research – A
History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 86 $2,200
20 Last light,
Kitticoola. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5
x 86 $2,200
21 Shadow of a
cloud, Rathjen Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from
Arid Zone Research – A History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 126 $2,750
22 Anstey’s
dream, Kitticoola. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5
x 43 $1,350
23 Palmer tors.
2002
pages from Arid Zone Research – A
History of Land
Use in Arid Regions, UNESCO,
Paris, 1961 27
x 43 $1,350
24 Above Reedy
Creek, Palmer. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5
x 43 $1,350
25 The road into
The Gap, Palmer. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia
Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 27.5
x 43 $1,350
26 Sea of fog
over the Murray Plain, Rathjen Gap. 2003
pages from Encyclopaedia Britannica (9th ed. 1898) 53 x 129 $4,500
The mountain scenery still lingers within me – it has
already entered my painter’s bag. Kim Can (1612 – after 1671)
Since 1997 I have been working in
the medium of pastel to produce a number of serialised works which explore
different kinds of drawing processes on pages of Encyclopaedia Britannica
(1898). These unpicked pages, and more recently, pages from volumes on Arid
Zone Research – A History of Land Use in Arid regions have provided a matrix to
explore the visual convention of the panorama.
Known collectively as Rainshadow
Landscapes, these works explore ‘seriality’ as an analogous structure to the
way in which we perceive and experience landscape. Constructed in segmented and elongated formats, these works
function and look like musical scores.
We scan the horizon, feel its rhythms, unable to take in the whole view
at one glance.
The works attempt to capture the
subtle moods and complex flowing forms of the bleached and barren rain-shadow
region near Palmer, on the eastern boundary of the Mount Lofty ranges. From the tops of the hills, above
Kitticoola, from Rathjen Hill and Scott Hill trig points, one looks east to the
Murraylands, where the Murray River flows in its ancient bed, but invisible to
the eye.
The country around is strewn with
granite tors, and dotted with aged, gnarled casuarinas and xanthoreas, eking
out a marginal existence, like the sheep.
Recently I happened to come across
a small black and white pen drawing I made in about 1976, while still a high
school student. It was an elongated
landscape, made from the crest of an enormous sandy rise found at the top of my
Aunt and Uncles’ Mallee property, Woodlands, near Karoonda. On the far distant
horizon was the pimple-form of Mount Barker, and further to the north the
escarpment country in which I have been recently working. All at once I felt reassured, confirmed, and
filled with a sense of joyous wonder, reminding me of words by Wang Gai, a
Chinese landscape master of the late 16th century, inscribed on one
of his ink drawings:
‘In the shades of summer trees
Holding a book and sleeping
without a care in the world.
(Such pleasure) is no less than
those enjoyed by people of High Antiquity
Recently I have deep within me
this wonderful feeling.’
I thank my friends, Greg Johns,
Ian Hamilton and Ed Douglas for sharing steps along the path.
Ken Orchard 2003