{"id":4228,"date":"2020-04-06T15:28:15","date_gmt":"2020-04-06T05:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=4228"},"modified":"2020-04-06T15:29:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T05:29:03","slug":"the-opening-lines-of-dorothea-mackellars-poem-my-country-john-maitland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=4228","title":{"rendered":"The opening lines of Dorothea Mackellar\u2019s poem My Country\u2026 ~ John Maitland"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a name=\"fb_share\" type=\"icon_link\" share_url=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=4228\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php\">Share<\/a><\/div><div><script src=\"http:\/\/static.ak.fbcdn.net\/connect.php\/js\/FB.Share\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/div><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4229 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-Maitland-Artist-6_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-Maitland-Artist-6_large.jpg 480w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-Maitland-Artist-6_large-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/John-Maitland-Artist-6_large-300x300.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 224px) 100vw, 224px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4230 alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Publicity-Shot-John-Maitland-at-Left-Bank-Gallery.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"276\" height=\"227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Publicity-Shot-John-Maitland-at-Left-Bank-Gallery.jpg 1559w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Publicity-Shot-John-Maitland-at-Left-Bank-Gallery-300x247.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Publicity-Shot-John-Maitland-at-Left-Bank-Gallery-768x632.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Publicity-Shot-John-Maitland-at-Left-Bank-Gallery-1024x842.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Imagine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitengland.com\/\">England<\/a>! \u201cField and coppice, green and shaded lanes, ordered woods and gardens, dim blue distance, brown streams \u2026\u201d It is the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitengland.com\/\">England<\/a> of my childhood but \u2026 \u201cthe beauty and the terror of the vast brown land\u2026\u201d has become as much a part of me over the past forty years as the rural <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitengland.com\/\">England<\/a> of my childhood. Like so many other immigrants it was a shock.<\/p>\n<p>For my first couple of years in the \u201cSunburnt Country\u201d I couldn\u2019t cope with the colours, my painting was all wrong! I thought some tall noxious weeds were beautiful shrubs; an early work featured a stretch of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.business.qld.gov.au\/industries\/farms-fishing-forestry\/agriculture\/land-management\/health-pests-weeds-diseases\/weeds-diseases\/invasive-plants\/restricted\/groundsel-bush\">groundsel<\/a>!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4237\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Red-Earth-Acrylic-OIl-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1593\" height=\"1254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Red-Earth-Acrylic-OIl-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520.jpg 1593w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Red-Earth-Acrylic-OIl-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-300x236.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Red-Earth-Acrylic-OIl-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-768x605.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Red-Earth-Acrylic-OIl-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-1024x806.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1593px) 100vw, 1593px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was used to the soft blankets of bluebells on the woodland floor near <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitnorthumberland.com\/morpeth\">Morpeth<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitnorthumberland.com\/\">Northumberland<\/a>, daffodils and snowdrops poking through the viridian grass and snow patched carpets which herald spring.<\/p>\n<p>We arrived in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australia.com\/en-us\">Australia<\/a> on March 5 to a very humid thirty-three degrees, having left two days earlier where it was minus three! Emerging from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bne.com.au\/\">Brisbane Airport<\/a> was literally a baptism of fire, squinting eyes in the early morning light and struggling with swollen feet and clothes too hot. With the sun bouncing off red dirt blinding me as I walked to a bus stop, not having a car. Heat, sweat, mozzies, plus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ROqxIdKff4k\">Pea-beu<\/a> and Rid for survival mis-pronouncing place names and asking a bus driver to drop me off at Woolloongabba (Wooolloooongaabba, my pronunciation), strange name indeed I thought. Even the first trip to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au\/default.html\">Gold Coast<\/a> left me with severe burns and I\u2019ve still got the scars. The only thing that kept me from heading back to freezing cold England was the Pea-beu and Rid and, oh yes, a lack of cash!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4234\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-180x90cm-8250.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"3197\" height=\"1611\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-180x90cm-8250.jpg 3197w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-180x90cm-8250-300x151.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-180x90cm-8250-768x387.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-180x90cm-8250-1024x516.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 3197px) 100vw, 3197px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I eventually stopped trying to escape the wide brown land and took to reading a few books to try and understand. My steep learning curve, it was fascinating. Emerging from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.com.au\/authors\/robert-hughes\">Robert Hughes<\/a> \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguin.com.au\/books\/the-fatal-shore-9780099448549\">Fatal Shore<\/a>\u2019 and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandunwin.com\/authors\/h\/xavier-herbert\">Xavier Herbert<\/a>\u2019s \u2018<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radionational\/programs\/archived\/booksandarts\/australian-classics-bookclub--poor-fellow-my-country\/4154134\">Poor Fellow My Country<\/a>\u2019; to visiting the work of John Glover, McCubbin, Roberts and Streeton at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au\/\">AGNSW<\/a>, which turned the key in the lock of my consciousness\u2026.and there it all was. My encounter with these books about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.australia.com\/en-us\">Australia<\/a> and its landscapes and the stories have been endlessly fascinating.<\/p>\n<p>The first major work I did (after coming to grips with the colours) I called \u2018Prindy\u2019. \u2018Prindy\u2019 of course was one of the main characters of \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radionational\/programs\/archived\/booksandarts\/australian-classics-bookclub--poor-fellow-my-country\/4154134\">Poor Fellow My Country<\/a>\u201d. Although the character was an adult, I imagined him as a beautiful young man\/boy in the vastness of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au\/\">North Queensland<\/a>. It was to be the first work I ever sold here, and the novel inspired many more.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4235\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Bush-Tucker-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1582\" height=\"1264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Bush-Tucker-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520.jpg 1582w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Bush-Tucker-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Bush-Tucker-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-768x614.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Bush-Tucker-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-120x96cm-5520-1024x818.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1582px) 100vw, 1582px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Life is circular\u2026 When my sister-in-law was persuaded to leave <a href=\"https:\/\/visit-canada.ca\/\">Canada<\/a> and come to Australia she worked as a nurse on Wickham Terrace, Brisbane. A colleague invited her for dinner at his place and lo and behold\u2026 there was \u2018Prindy\u2019 on his wall!!!! With three other <a href=\"http:\/\/redhillgallery.com.au\/john-maitland\">John Maitland<\/a> paintings. She married him!<\/p>\n<p>And wait there\u2019s more! It has come to pass that we can now also say that two of our good friends have had a\u00a0close friendship with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allenandunwin.com\/authors\/h\/xavier-herbert\">Xavier Herbert<\/a> and the painter of another picture from far <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tropicalnorthqueensland.org.au\/\">North Queensland<\/a> which features the actual \u2018Prindy\u2019 himself!!!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-4233\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-II-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-144x98cm-6720.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2801\" height=\"1887\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-II-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-144x98cm-6720.jpg 2801w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-II-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-144x98cm-6720-300x202.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-II-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-144x98cm-6720-768x517.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Waterhole-II-Acrylic-Oil-on-Canvas-144x98cm-6720-1024x690.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2801px) 100vw, 2801px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Vastness<\/p>\n<p>This is no common bush poem or folksy poetry, not for me, it smacks of the grandeur of \u201csweeping plains\u201d and \u201cbeauty and terror\u201d of this vast island continent. Just writing those words send a shiver down my spine!<\/p>\n<p>Those who know my work will know I\u2019ve travelled extensively through Australia, and I see it as a pastiche of the beauty and grandeur I\u2019ve seen. So, for my part in this exhibition there is sand, rocks, cliffs, desert, and the water which is so vitally important in the struggle for survival on this vast continent\u2026\u2026 And, of course, the people are there too, then there\u2019s the \u201cJewelled sea\u201d as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dorotheamackellar.com.au\/\">Mackellar<\/a> puts it, opalescent and magnificent.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-4236\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Jewelled-Sea-Acrylic-Oil-75x142cm-5000.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"143\" height=\"288\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Jewelled-Sea-Acrylic-Oil-75x142cm-5000.jpg 996w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Jewelled-Sea-Acrylic-Oil-75x142cm-5000-149x300.jpg 149w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Jewelled-Sea-Acrylic-Oil-75x142cm-5000-768x1547.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Jewelled-Sea-Acrylic-Oil-75x142cm-5000-508x1024.jpg 508w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 143px) 100vw, 143px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4232 alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Dry-River-Bed-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-122x90cm-5660.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"376\" height=\"290\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Dry-River-Bed-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-122x90cm-5660.jpg 2597w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Dry-River-Bed-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-122x90cm-5660-300x231.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Dry-River-Bed-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-122x90cm-5660-768x593.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/Maitland-John-Dry-River-Bed-Acrylic-Oil-on-Board-122x90cm-5660-1024x790.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 376px) 100vw, 376px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Never did\u00a0I imagine what it would become for me.<\/p>\n<p>All of these elements I brought into painting\u00a0my <a href=\"http:\/\/redhillgallery.com.au\/2020-a-sunburnt-country\">SUNBURNT COUNTRY<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9\u00a0\u00a0<a title=\"Red Hill Gallery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.redhillgallery.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Red Hill G<\/a><a title=\"Red Hill Gallery\" href=\"http:\/\/www.redhillgallery.com.au\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">allery<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"al2fb_like_button\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=499790883388518\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, \"script\", \"facebook-jssdk\"));\n<\/script>\n<fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=4228\" send=\"true\" layout=\"button_count\" show_faces=\"true\" share=\"false\" width=\"150\" action=\"recommend\" font=\"arial\" colorscheme=\"light\" ref=\"AL2FB\"><\/fb:like><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Share Imagine England! \u201cField and coppice, green and shaded lanes, ordered woods and gardens, dim blue distance, brown streams \u2026\u201d It is the England of my childhood but \u2026 \u201cthe beauty and the terror of the vast brown land\u2026\u201d has &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/?p=4228\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,40,4,171,262,176,63,19,281,199,226,53,43,7,159,335,20,336,202,30,253,18,341,24,339,347,223,13,6,144],"tags":[181,290,121,61,9,152,14,123,15,306,295,184,129,122,120,321,292,160,296,322,66,124,16,64,297,25,67,294,10,312],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4228"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4239,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4228\/revisions\/4239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artchat.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}