Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Barbara Cameron-Smith has a work history spanning over 40 years, researching and delivering natural and cultural heritage interpretation projects for the public and private sectors. In this publication she set out to discover artist Hans Heysen’s relationship with the landform he often painted which he called “Old Pat”. In the process she discovered many of his sketching locations. Her project then branched out to compare these locations with recent snapshots of the landforms. Her results can be found in this 20cm squarish book of over 200 pages.
Chris Heysen, grandson of the artist, provided the Foreword, opposite a map showing the important locations for many of the artist’s works. This area of South Australia, so different from his usual subjects, gave the artist a keen understanding of the geology and structure of the Flinders Ranges. It also gave him the opportunity to explore a new colour palate and entirely novel landscapes.
This beautifully illustrated book with excerpts from letters home to his family, describing the often-challenging conditions he experienced while travelling and camping in this semi-arid landscape, provides a different perspective on this important Australian artist. Unlike earlier books about Hans Heysen by Colin Thiele and Len Klepac, this is not a biography of the artist as it concentrates on just a small part of his career. It covers an estimated period between 1926 and 1949. The vast horizons, ancient trees and sweeping vistas, profoundly inspired this artist’s work.
The author draws her information from her own sightseeing as well as from more than fifty unpublished letters that the artist wrote home to his wife and family, with no attempt to gloss over his true feelings at the time. Known mostly for the legendary gums in his paintings much of the work from this period highlights the primitive and peculiar landforms of the ranges including many scoured out erosion gullies.
The book is divided into two main parts – Daily Life in the Flinders Ranges and ‘At home’ in the Flinders Ranges. As well as text, each section provides personal pictures as well as photos of his artwork, most in colour but some in black and white or sepia and snippets from family correspondence. Part One includes information about his daily life, where he slept and obtained provisions, how he travelled around by train then car. At first he used the services of a jack-of-all-trades contractor then later his son travelled with him. Segments of information reveal how he managed to stay in contact with his family, the weather they encountered and some of their misadventures. This information was gleaned from the family correspondence and recorded in this book.
It was interesting to read that at first Heysen found this area to be ‘gruesomely disappointing in the sense that anything really interesting seems too far away & nothing really looks very different’ (3). When he climbed higher and the whole panorama revealed itself this opinion changed. Later he was to write that this was really wonderful country – having too much choice.
Part Two addresses his time in specific areas from Hawker, his jumping off point for most of his trips north, to the Arkaba country, an area he returned to several times. Many of his sketches were also done around Wilpena Pound, the Aroona Valley, Brachina Gorge and Blinman, once a copper mine. For each of these destinations, information from correspondence in and around these places is revealed with photographs of the work produced while there.
Twelve pages at the back of the book list the illustrations found throughout with more specific information regards the medium used, the size of the artworks and where they are presently housed.
The book is beautifully constructed on glossy white paper with the photographs of various size and a pale imprint of what appears to be sections of the original letters. This is a book which describes an ordinary man with an extraordinary talent and the lengths he would go to for his art, which includes oil paintings, charcoal drawings and field sketches.
The author spent time travelling to many of the places shown in Heysen’s works and trying to identify exactly the artist’s position when the work was done. Thanks to this book, readers can better understand the man and what so fascinated this artist to record for posterity what this part of South Australia was like at that particular time in history.
This book, by Barbara Cameron-Smith, would settle nicely on any library shelf or coffee table as it carries photos of a large portion of the artist’s work as well as comparisons of some of them with how the area looks today. Other photos have been sources of a more personal nature depicting Heysen during his travels at that time. For those readers who care to spend the time reading the text there is much interesting information of Heysen’s own thoughts and feelings during his travels away from his family. This book certainly shows what goes on behind the scenes in the creation of artwork.
Hans Heysen Was Here
(2026)
by Barbara Cameron-Smith
Wakefield Press
ISBN:978-1-92338-819-2
$59.95; 240pp