The River

In these preparatory works, Brent Harris formulates the imagery that informs the painting, peaks (to the river), 2019. During this process, Harris found inspiration in the New Zealand landscape paintings of Petrus Van der Velden:

‘It was during the painting of the large work that the Van der Velden painting came to mind. I have loved his deep brooding paintings of Otira Gorge since I was a boy when my family would visit the National Gallery in Wellington. It was in painting the mountain side of my painting that AAG painting came to mind. I love the way these patches of paint just sit on the surface of the Van der Velden, very modern in the way that they depict sunlight on the mountainside while still remaining simply patches of paint. I enjoyed referencing this painting on my mountainside, at the lower right in ‘Peaks (to the river)’.

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