Bright Sea 2007

WILLIAM ROBINSON born 1936

Bright Sea 2007

oil on linen
52.0 x 77.0 cm; 73.5 x 96.0 cm (framed)
signed and dated lower left: William Robinson '07

Provenance:
Australian Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso, stock no.AG30226)
Private collection, Sydney
Shapiro Auctioneers, Sydney, 25 August 2014, lot 50
Private collection, Sydney
Shapiro Auctioneers, Sydney, 27 August 2018, lot 21
Private collection, Sydney

Exhibited:
William Robinson: Paintings and Lithographs 2000-2007, Australian Galleries, Sydney, 2-24 October 2007; Australian Galleries, Melbourne, 13 November - 9 December 2007, cat.19 (illus. exhibition catalogue, p.53)

Estimate: $40000 - 60000

Result Hammer: $65000

The subject matter present in the works of William Robinson is directly derived from his personal experiences, and thus his oeuvre is somewhat autobiographical in its documentation of time passing. Over his artistic career his works are thematically divisible into a few main categories. This clearly documented timeline allows for his techniques and genres to be traced. His earlier works produced through the 1960s and 1970s focus on interior scenes derived from impressionistic techniques.1 Following a move to a farm with his family, his works shifted to farmyard scenes in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which reflected a more personal style that was less conventionally constructed and at times humorous.2 His prolific work capturing the landscape of the Australian rainforest began in the mid-1980s when he relocated to the Gold Coast’s hinterland. In this period Robinson's artistic style changes the perspective of landscapes to one of a multi-viewpoint perspective.3 It makes his aesthetic distinct and intriguing amongst other Australian landscape artists. Through the 1990s a change of location once again impacted his art as he shifted to images of sky and seas upon a move to coastal New South Wales.4 With the ever-changing landscape scenes, Robinson also documented his life through portraiture being accredited with two Archibald Prizes in 1987 and 1995.5

As the subject matter Robinson chooses to focus on shares a close relationship to his personal life, his composition and style share an intimacy with his experiences. Bright Sea is generated from Robinson’s time living in Kingscliff on the northern New South Wales coast.6 Like a window into his life, the work captures a moment in time creating a sophisticated vision of his personal experiences through the late 1990s and 2000s. This work from 2007 is unique in that it encompasses the merging of two of Robinson’s more prolific artistic phases. In capturing elements of nature along with ocean visuals Robinson presents a composition that poses a sense of chaotic nature through a serene aesthetic.

In Bright Sea we as the viewer glance into a landscape with a sense of familiarity. Spying the crashing waves through the dense untamed forests, an essence of the Australian coastal life is captured. Robinson’s use of colour creates a vivid warmth that is both enticing and playful. The vivid pigments that capture the bushland coupled with the saturated blue waves make a bright atmospheric quality that is almost artificial in its vibrant beauty. As Robinson borrows from his recollections and interpretations, he states that he has, ‘never used photographs to stir memories’ as he ‘did not paint these works as a visitor to the landscape, but as one who lived in it and experienced it every day.’7

The scene has an intended sense of familiarity that pushes the work to be more than just a mere interpretation of Robinson’s world view, while also capturing something from beyond reality that makes it more poignant as a landscape. This piece serves not as a photographic reproduction of what Robinson has seen, but reflects his sense of being in the world and the broader emotions that are elicited from nature. The rough and almost impressionistic brushstrokes in combination with Robinson’s palette of colours crafts an aesthetic experience that draws in any viewers that have had a similar experience. Robinson states that he is, ‘only presenting personal experiences to be shared … that may help the observer to experience the picture’.8 While the title Bright Sea is very much an apt description of the work’s content, it is also a connection to the experience associated with the beauty of the Australian landscape.

Footnotes

1. Clark, S.T., & Osmond, G., ‘The Materials and Techniques of William Robinson’, AICCM Bulletin, Taylor & Francis, 2016, p.52
2. Ibid., p.52
3. Fern, L., William Robinson, Craftsman House, Sydney, 1995, p.49
4. The Artist: in Life, William Robinson Gallery, Brisbane, accessed 14 February 2024, https://www.wrgallery.qut.edu.au/about-the-artist
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Rainbird, S., The Rainforest Works of William Robinson, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, 2010, p.15
8. Seear, L., Darkness and Light: The Art of William Robinson, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2001, p.118

Elyse O’Neill
Elyse O’Neill is a Masters graduate from the University of Melbourne specialising in art curatorship.

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