Pastorale, oil on canvas, 90 x 30 cm
"My work speaks of place and memory and combine various elements of Australia, the place where I have arrived and now live, and Europe, the place I have journeyed from and once lived. My mining background and heritage determine my interest in the centuries old struggle between the forces of industry and nature.While my works are inspired by a strongly narrative element grounded in the context of my own personal experience and history, much of my painting is devoid of figuration and extraneous detail. Large areas are left undefined, empty of fuss and unnecessary congestion. I leave these dark holes for the viewer to peer into and struggle through. For me, drawing and painting are both journeys through layers. My paintings are intensively worked, scrapped back repeatedly and reconfigured, looking for something that is unified, full and ordered. In my works the sheer physicality of paint, its density and the archaeology of the layers, its application and movement across the surface is inseparable from the content. I believe it’s not enough to simply describe what we see, one has to recreate the landscape in painterly form by simplifying and accentuating so that we can understand the truth and tensions that exist therein."
- Delia Vilhelm, 2011
Hartley Valley, oil on canvas, 95 x 90 cm
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