'Beyond The Front Gate'
An exhibition of recent landscape paintings inspired by Gundaroo & surrounding region.
by Ian Fleming
24 Oct - 10 Nov
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE
Beyond the Front Gate’ is made up of a series of paintings that Ian has been working on throughout most of 2024. Ian's inspiration comes from the scenery of the local Sutton/Gundaroo area where he has lived his whole life, focusing largely on landscapes from photographs taken either by himself or from the family archives. Motivated by his emotional response to an atmospheric vista, Fleming challenges himself to combine expressive elements in his landscapes with an emphasis on conveying the mood and ambience of the day. Whether its washes of intense colour, a high value colour palette made up of thick loose brushwork or the use of refined detail, Ian's aim is to draw the viewer right in - to see what he sees and what he feels in that moment.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
SUNSET AND REFLECTIONS OVER THE DAM NEAR GUNDAROO 2024
Oil on board
33x43x5cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
SOLD
I generally view sunset images as a little ‘kitch’ but the golden light over our dam with its reflections and ripples combined with the clouds and near-silhouetted trees was just too tempting.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
AS SEEN FROM THE DITCH 2024
Oil on board
25x33x5cm float framed in beeswax polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$475
As I was driving from Sutton to Gundaroo one rainy day, I saw this dead tree near the road with a really cool looking sky creating a stunning background. I immediately pulled the car over to photograph it - unfortunately, I had not checked the road shoulder and there was a deep ditch and I nearly toppled the car into it. Hence the title. Dad was not impressed.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
SHEARING SHED 2024
Oil on board
25x33x5cm float framed in beeswax polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$475
This is the same shearing shed as is in my earlier landscape “From the lane”, based on an image I snapped as we were walking back from the letter box at the corner. I really wanted to try and capture this scene again with a slightly different perspective and see how things might change with my process. Ironically, I ended up going very detailed with this painting as well. Something about this particular landscape draws out the detail in me.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
HORSE FLOAT WITH DAM REFLECTIONS 2024
Oil on board
33x43x5cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
$475
I love painting clouds – when there are no clouds, reflections on water are the next best thing. This is a view from the wall of our main dam looking towards the horse float (which hasn’t moved for a few years) and the pump shed (which hasn’t pumped for a few years). This was another of my small studies exploring different block out styles. For this I chose a detailed block out which I then refined with even more resolution and then continued to refine into the final image. This dam features in a few of my paintings - from different directions.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
YELLOW DIRT ROAD 2024
Oil on board
25x33x5cm float framed in beeswax polished Tasmanian Blackwood
SOLD
March 14, 2024
Sadly our tracks are not paved with gold in this part of Oz. This is based on a photo I took as I was rambling along a track on one of our neighbours’ properties near Gundaroo early one morning - a rare gem as early morning walks are not on my normal schedule.
Continuing with exploring different blocking out styles, I approached this one using a very low-detail approach, just getting the main shapes and shades in place while allowing myself to be playful with the colours rather than sticking as close to my reference photograph as I often try. While not exactly fauvist, the blues, reds and purples give it something of that feel.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
FROM THE LANE 2024
Oil on canvas
33x43x5cm float framed in beeswax-polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$650
“One of the things I almost always like in framing the photos I base my paintings on, is some element of human artefact, either being overgrown by nature or, as in this case, of a temporary, ‘rough-and-ready’ nature. In this view, we are looking over a Cockey’s gate into a well-treeed paddock. The green weeds sticking up in the front make a nice contrast to the grass and the dark trees silhouetted against the grey winter sky.
A ‘Cockey’s gate’ ( Cockey being slang for an Australian farmer), is a rural term for a jury-rigged gate made by having part of the fencing end at an unanchored pole which is just hooked, usually top and bottom, to an adjacent fence post as an easy way to open. It provides a cheap and easy way to get stock or equipment between paddocks without the time and expense of installing a proper gate.”
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
ROAD TO RIVENDELL 2024
Oil on canvas
33x43x5cm float framed in beeswax-polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$650
"This is a view of part of the neighbouring property, Rivendell, which features in many of my paintings. Given the Lord of the Rings connotations of the name “Rivendell” I frequently riff on the middle earth feel of the landscape as I have with this painting.
This painting is part of series of three (the middle child but much loved) between “Gumtree Blues” and “From the Lane”. Where “Gumtree Blues” is loose and almost naïve (as befits a jazzy title) and “From a lane” is highly detailed, “Road to Rivendell” sits somewhere in the middle.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
GUM TREE BLUES 2024
Oil on canvas
33x43x5cm float framed in beeswax-polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$650
This started as a block out of the view through some gum trees along Brook’s Creek Lane which came out so well that I decided any further work on it would be unlikely to improve it. I really love the colours and playful blots of light and will endeavour to develop some more paintings along this line in the future.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
BEYOND THE COCKEY’S GATE 2024
Oil on canvas
78x53x5cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
$1490
“One of the things I almost always like in framing the photos I base my paintings on, is some element of human artefact, either being overgrown by nature or, as in this case, of a temporary, ‘rough-and-ready’ nature. In this view, we are looking over a Cockey’s gate into a well-treeed paddock. The green weeds sticking up in the front make a nice contrast to the grass and the dark trees silhouetted against the grey winter sky.
A ‘Cockey’s gate’ ( Cockey being slang for an Australian farmer), is a rural term for a jury-rigged gate made by having part of the fencing end at an unanchored pole which is just hooked, usually top and bottom, to an adjacent fence post as an easy way to open. It provides a cheap and easy way to get stock or equipment between paddocks without the time and expense of installing a proper gate.”
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
STORM BREAKING 2024
Oil on canvas
64x94x5cm float framed in beeswax-polished Tasmanian Blackwood
$475
This painting seeks to capture our derelict goat shed. It is a recapitulation of the first painting in the ‘goat shed’ series which holds particular meaning to me as it marks the beginning of my professional practice as a painter.
The reference images for this latest painting were taken as I ran into our backyard in a rainstorm, seeking a particularly dramatic development of the earlier painting. Both are atmospheric but where ‘The Goat Shed’ was foreboding, ‘Breaking Storm’ is tempestuous. I see a natural progression in the two works: the earlier painting preceding the breaking storm.
This work is the largest I have painted to date and brings together my love of my home and painting rural landscapes, clouds, doom and gloom and highly detailed foregrounds.
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
MIST OVER RIVENDELL 2024
Oil on canvas
64X94cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
$1890
The property opposite ours in called “Rivendell” and, although I’ve painted this view before, I felt the mist transformed it into a mystic scene evocative of Tolkien’s Middle Earth and consequently a goodish fit for the approaches to the Elven settlement of Rivendell (probably nestled in the valley beyond on the bank of Brook’s Creek).
BEYOND THE FENCE 2024
Oil on canvas
64X94cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
$1890
“View through the gate at the back of our house into the paddocks beyond. I loved doing the bark peeling off the trees and the mist among the scrub in the far paddock. Combined with the colour of the sky the day I was painting the scene has a calm warmth that I enjoy nearly as much as cloudy overcast one.
You can’t really see it but the fenceposts beyond the gate were completely hidden by a huge blackberry bush until I took a hedge trimmer to it. Its absence from the painting records my victory.”
IAN FLEMING
Gundaroo, NSW
SHEPHERD’S WARNING 2024
Oil on canvas
92x122cm float framed in Tasmanian Blackwood
$3200
“Returning from a walk along Brooks Creek Lane with dad and the dog, I could see a small flock of sheep gathered on the knoll the other side of the fence from our entrance. Clouds were gathering over the hill behind in an ominous fashion giving a really melodramatic lighting to the scene. I intentionally used a deep red under-layer and applied the superimposing layers very thinly with lots of turps, allowing the under layer to impart a subtle threat to the whole scene. Riffing on the initial intensity of the block-out, I exaggerated the overall contrasts and the strength of the clouds.
Looking at the scene once I had painted it, it brought to mind the occasional mention of grazier’s alerts in weather reports. This morphed into the title ‘Shepherd’s Warning’ from the “old saw” (traditional saying) – “clouds in the morning – shepherd’s warning; clouds at night – shepherd’s delight”.