News tagged "ST Gill" | Hyatt Gallery

Last Days of Summer

Posted on May 11, 2014 by Peter Hyatt | 0 Comments

Light is the life-force for all visual artists. I was reminded of this when taking these images of a construction site in a local shopping strip. The tonal values are reminiscent of the mid-19th century artist ST GIll who captured a milky, opalescent, light around rural gold diggings and city streets. It's an uncommon light these days in an age of extreme colour.

These images of a site in Smith Street Collingwood in inner-city Melbourne capture a transitory phase of development making its mark against a backdrop of dignified Victorian buildings constructed while Gill was alive. The once large business houses are about to be dwarfed by this new mega-mart with underground car park.

As developers prefer to keep such construction views away from the gaze of passers-by I needed to stand on the saddle of my bicycle and reach above the temporary high-wall to capture views of modern day gold-mining.This image is a contrast of scarred landscape and early morning late summer light. It's as if one era is overlooking the mechanical diggings from another world connected by era to Gill's renderings.

Posted in Hole in the Ground, Last Days of Summer, Smith St. Collingwood, ST Gill