Near Serpentine

NEAR SERPENTINE

…is the season about to break?

Take a road trip through northern central Victoria and you will see some fabulous rural farming homesteads and landscapes along with some ramshackled 19th Century buildings and sheds.

The Serpentine region is an area of diverse landscapes and land-use, a region that encourages sheep and cattle farming. Much of the landscape in the area between Bridgewater and Kerang has been and still is used for intense agriculture despite the appearances of abandonment along the way.

This painting is of a lovely, well used, corrugated iron farm shed that may have been standing for more than 100 years near Serpentine Creek. The wonderful River Red Gums, Red Box, Ironbark and Blue Mallee trees form the background whilst the intriguing corner fence post will have many stories to tell.

There are many farming homesteads and sheds in the region, some appear to be neglected although there is plenty of evidence some of these sheds may have been used as implement sheds and even today, despite the dilapidated condition of many, probably serve an important storage purpose.

If the future is to be imagined in any meaningful way, past and present reactions to uncertainty need to be understood – and that is the life of our farming communities.

Artist: Geof Pearce
Medium: Acrylic on 10 oz Australian Acrylic Primed Linen
Size: Landscape: 102cms (40”) X 76cms (30”)
Completion Date: December 2020
SOLD