Acrylic painting of Winton plains from escarpment viewpoint, North Queensland.

To travel out in North West Queensland is to be amazed at a panorama of desert, dust and incredible views from clifftop places.  When I went out to see the dinosaur footprints, we stopped at a lookout. 

This was the inspiration for my painting, which features a stockman, his horse and faithful dog, standing on the cliff, with a spectacular view to the horizon. Truly, Australia is the land of wide open spaces.  The artwork was completed on board, with a thin wash technique to portray the arid outback landscape.  

 In this outback painting, I used a limited palette of browns and muted greens plus black to convey the harsh desert terrain. The scene is derived from the countryside near Winton, North Queensland.  A lonely station hand rests in the shade on a hill overlooking a tree dotted plain.  His horse and dog sit nearby.  The painting is my attempt to capture the vast panoramic expanses that comprise inland Australia. They have a unique beauty of their own. 

Original painting - weatherbeaten Aussie outback stockman

It is said that the Australian outback produces characters who are truly individual. When I painted this portrait of a true Aussie stockman, I felt this face reflected something of the individual nature of this country.  To survive in such an inhospitable environment, people must be tough, resilient, and able to cope with demands that their city counterparts cannot comprehend.
It is these qualities that I have tried to capture in this study.
The palette of colours that I used in this painting involved primarily warm oranges and shades of beige, balanced with the blue/green tones on the shirt, and also in the lines portraying the face.  Shadows were made distinct to give the impression of a harsh Australian sun.