Artist Statement

   Dallas Richardson 

 My prints are a reflection of me and my environment. Living on the banks of the Tamar River, I see its great beauty. I watch the river from my studio: the daily rhythms of tides, the rustle of reeds, and the migratory birds drawing patterns in the sky oblivious to the distant sounds of passing cars.  It’s no surprise that I have been captivated by this serene, austere vista. Yet, this experience is a solitary one – the crown land between our property and the River excludes the curious from sharing in it.  In creating ‘The 5 Tamar Valley linocuts, I hoped to breach this obstacle, and to capture the panorama so that others may share in the beauty and the wild.

On my walks along its course, I experience the magic of the Melaleuca Ericifolia Tea Trees that grow in clusters, forming dark silhouetted patterns against the smooth light river. Their bone white trunks bend spindly and sparse reflecting their resilience to the harsh Tasmanian weather; consequently, they seem to dance lightly along forming contorted patterns as they go.

I have chosen to use the printmaking process of drypoint to create prints of these tea trees, as the raised burr and fine marks of this process, express perfectly their thick canopy, whilst the technique of wiping back with a cotton bud, to create whiteness, highlights   their bone white trunks.

My artistic oeuvre is also captivated by features around Launceston such as the ‘Gorge’ and thus the two reduction linocuts, ‘Gorge Sentinel’ and ‘Gorge Rapids’ which I express something about its atmosphere. ‘Silent Witness -…’ is an 80-year-old tree, a Robinia, growing in Wind Mill Hill Park, on the corner of Whelman and York Street.

My garden inspires me as well and presently I am completing a minnie series about the seasons of the year. ‘Scrambling trees….illusions flower in the light’ represents winter, ‘Summer Flourish’ the exotic Flanders poppies in my summer garden and ‘Autumn Glory’, is a kaleidoscope of autumn leaves and colours that I see around me in that season. The final print will be spring. Each print is a reduction linocut, the common feature to these prints is the circle or half circle.