Image source: savill.com.au/austsydney.html
Most depictions of the desert are of a rather unhospitable place, yet this canvas by Robert Juniper entitled ‘Desert Landscape’, is rather enticing. Juniper is a West Australian artist of “poetic and spontaneous vision” best known for his evocative landscapes. His work is represented in the collections of most major Australian galleries as well as being collected privately.
What quality of landscape does his work capture? This is not the landscape of abstract contemplation – rather ‘people’ are intimately involved in their environment….as much a part of the scene, they are coextensive with the wildlife…
Always excepting sand dunes, deserts do not photograph very well. I think the painting captures the relationship between The Near, rich in detail, with the mysterious distance of The Far.
Sometimes history dispels our ideas of time….of what we seek to remember and what we presume has been lost forever. See the Ramat Rahel Archaelogical Project [http://www.tau.ac.il/~rmtrachl/the_site.html]