Lake George near Canberra is an ancient lake, completely silted up and usually empty, its vast expanse used as pasture.
Thanks to the heavy La Nina rains over the last 3 years it’s currently full. It’s a compelling, moody and mysterious place. Shadows and light, areas of calm and others ruffled by breezes, all combine to create unusual patterns on its surface, and its reflections never seem to quite match the hills and sky.
The main highway from Sydney to Canberra runs past the lake on its Western bank, and only those devoid of a sense of beauty, wonder or poetry would ignore the view.
I’ve tried to capture that feeling in this painting, as best I can, using a number of reference photos I’ve taken over the past year and especially two images provided by Tim the Yowie man. It was interesting, and challenging, working with the light in this scene. In my mind, the light comes from behind the viewer, the sun low in the west, and above the hills in the east on the far bank is a storm, its clouds banking high in the sky and lit golden by the sun, causing the gold reflections on the lake.
The colour balance was a challenge too. The surface of the lake has been reworked numerous times before I felt happy – in the end, it was all about how the painting felt to me, rather than depicting the lake in a realistic way.
“Lake George Pelicans” is acrylic/ink on 81x122cm inscribed hardboard.
