John Alty
Triptych, oil on canvassed ply panels, centre panel 109x58mm, side panels104x28mm, overall size 142x127mm, signed John Alty 1999 lwr. rt. panel. framed by the legendary Jim Stewart, Zenith Gallery Renmark.
I actually witnessed this incident, whilst on a dinghy exploration of the labyrinthine creek system leading from the main stream of the Murray River above Renmark,S.A. and abutting the vast Calperum Station….Glorious country, the shafting light through the trees is not unlike that of a Cathedral, except ringing with birdsong.
In 1999 a long dry spell had broken and we river people were asked to take part in a frog call census, as their population had exploded after the rains had soaked the mudflats and reserves. Naturally this attracted huge flocks of waterbirds, such as Pelican, Ibis and Spoonbills to prey on them and I could hear the KeeKee—Kee call of the circling hawks.
I was observing the two Banjo Frogs (spec.Limnodynastes Dumerili.) clasped in the mating embrace called Amplexus, when the Brown Goshawk (spec. Accipiter Fasciatus prob. juv. f.) plummeted down in a determined stoop.
So this is a depiction of an instant in time…..that took me three months to paint!.
I shall not say whether Romeo and Juliet made a split second escape, or that doom was their final moment of ecstasy.
This painting was exhibited as a finalist in the 1999 Sir Hans Heysen Landscape Prize at the Hahndorf Academy and has been in storage since its return.
Triptych, oil on canvassed ply panels, centre panel 109x58cm, side panels104x28cm, overall size 142x127cm,
signed John Alty 1999 lwr. rt. panel. framed by the legendary Jim Stewart, Zenith Gallery Renmark.
All documentation , including photos of work in progress and diary entries supplied as artists provenance.
This is the real thing.
Price $12,000……..although lease/swap negotiations will be entertained. Talk to us !
Nature’s Circle of Life continues . .
experts from Calperum