DETAIL: Grace COSSINGTON SMITH,  'Interior in yellow', 1964, oil on composition board, National Gallery of Australia
 
 
Grace COSSINGTON SMITH | The gully

 
COSSINGTON SMITH, Grace
Australia 1892 – Australia 1984
UK, Europe 1912-14; UK, Italy 1949-51
The gully 1928
oil on pulpboard
110.5 (h) x 82.5 (w) cm
Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth
VIEW: Article |

In Cossington Smith’s daring painting The gully we are in the midst of untamed bush at Lovers’ Leap near the artist’s home. This work is about what we see, know and feel the rocky bush landscape to be. It is about the muted tones of the Australian bush enlivened by a vital and dynamic structure. A large tree trunk in the foreground stretches up like an arch, alluding to the spiritual in nature, while the close-up of the fresh leaf shapes set against a fallen tree suggests the cyclical pattern of life and death.

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