Sydney Contemporary: Desert Varnish – Conversations with Fowlers Gap

Artists are captivated and led by the senses. Touch, smell, sound and sight lead the hand to carve, mark and create what many can’t see. The work leads to new and undiscovered visualisations of place, and formations of memory where past and present are interwoven in new understanding of the unspoken. Stepping on to the rich, arid, ochre drenched soil of Fowlers Gap one could not help but be immediately aware of the energy of place, a vibrational code that was purely sensory. Rich in First Nations history, the land hums with an unknown becoming and beckoning of the gentle rhythms that connects all things. Ancient red river gums, belah, mulga, wattle, blue bush and an abundance of wild grass grow and thrive amongst reptiles, kangaroos, echidnas, emus and a lively array of rare and wild birds such as Wild Zebra Finches, White Faced Herons, Fairy Martins and Rainbow-Bee Eaters. The sky is uninterrupted, large and imposing. It blankets the Earth by day, and as the sun falls it is illuminated with stars guiding travellers through the night. The scents of wild, native oils carried through the winds, and the sounds of bird call are a constant euphony in the landscape.

Arthouse Gallery held two residencies over two years in preparation for ‘Desert Varnish – Conversations with Fowlers Gap’ with the first taking place in early 2024, and the second in May 2026. Fifteen leading contemporary landscape artists were invited including Jo Bertini, Jo Davenport, Kate Dorrough, Belinda Fox, Ian Greig, Clifford How, Nicole Kelly, Amelia Lynch, Lauren O’Connor, Colin Pennock, Hobie Porter, Robyn Sweaney, Emma Walker, Shona Wilson and Joshua Yeldham who worked en plein air and in the onsite artist studios. Facilitated by artist Nicole Kelly and her partner Lauren Forlonge, these two separate desert excursions, two years apart offered vastly different experiences. The Australian landscape can shift and change dramatically, with the once familiar becoming otherworldly. Red ochres, dry, arid, drought affected landscape was seen in 2024, and on the artists return in 2026, a flood had impacted the landscape with much of Fowlers green and lush with grasses and wildflowers.

The residencies were anchored in collective creativity with communal experiences evolving over home cooked meals shared after long days on site, drawing, painting and sculpting. The life of an artist can be a solitary one, with working in a studio essential for creating but limiting for community connections. Kelly commenting  “I find it fascinating to see the work that develops when a group of artists, each with their own distinct way of interpreting the world, come together in one location to make work. The friendships and conversations that emerge through that shared experience are incredibly valuable.”  Alongside these leading contemporary artists local Traditional First Nations Owners including artist and Barkandji Elder Badger Bates and local Malyangapa guide Mark Sutton invited the artists to join them on Country, taking them to Mutawintji National Park, one of the most sacred and important sites in New South Wales. Historically, communities travelled thousands of miles to take part in rainmaking and initiation ceremonies where the monolithic rock formations, mountains of the Barrier Ranges and gorges shielded them from the harsh desert elements. Home to a plethora of First Nations rock art sites, with each new path artworks emerged from rock faces and crevices; emu footprints intricately carved into stone, handprints painted indicating stages of initiation. Bates and Sutton encouraged the artists to join them in celebration of the landscape, to work with them in depicting their Country within the Contemporary art canon through painting, sculpture and ceramic and sharing these works with a wider, national audience to encourage conservation and care of the landscape.  These conversations transformed the ways the artists interpreted and understood the landscape, offering new insights that emerged from a sense of community. Sutton stating “Each artist adds their square to the quilt of memory. Artistic ruminations build on the Dreamtime. Our culture evolves. The foundations are firm. The spirit of welcome and sharing is the cement that binds generations together.”

Fowlers Gap is located 112 kilometres from Broken Hill, a 39,000 hectare landscape

that is the only dedicated research station in the arid zone of New South Wales. Established in 1966, the area is now leased by the University of New South Wales with research projects undertaken in areas such as climate monitoring, soil conservation, ornithology, mammalogy and astronomy. Originally a pastoral station with over 50,000 sheep the University is working on replenishing the landscape and conserving its natural environment.

While Fowlers Gap is an incredibly dynamic landscape, one cannot discuss the station without highlighting Ochre House. An important location in terms of Australian Landscape painting, the terrain is almost a dreamscape where rock faces stand as guardians to a waterhole surrounded by ancient gums, wildflowers and a carpet of ochre rocks. It feels imagined rather than real, and amongst this beauty stands a small dwelling built by acclaimed Australian artist Idris Murphy. Murphy was one of the first to recognise the importance Fowlers Gap held for Australian landscape painting, and there is now a significant legacy of artists who return to this landscape including Elisabeth Cummings, Peter Sharp, Joanna Logue, Lucy Culliton, Alan Daniel Jones and Ross Laurie. ‘Desert Varnish – Conversations with Fowlers Gap’ continues this important visual record of the site, with each artist in this exhibition creating new perspectives and interpretations continuing to establish this ongoing communal exchange between Fowlers Gap and contemporary Australian artists.

—       Emily George