Rainforest art ambassador

Exhibition TWO Queensland icons – our famous rainforest and renowned artist William Robinson – have come together in a new exhibition now open to the public at QUT. Gallery director Stephen Rainbird said Mr Rob- inson, pictured, was an unofficial ambassador of the Queensland rainforest. “Art is a personal statement from the artist. It has to be a refl ection of your life – if they live in suburbia, it should be a refl ection of urban liv- ing. I lived in the hinterland for quite a number of years and so I know that area is my home area,” Mr Robinson said. Other artists have painted the interior in terms of the desert, the outback, the dry bush. William Robinson focuses on the rainforest and this new exhibition covers a 21-year period from 1984 to 2005 when Bill was initially living in the Gold Coast hinterland and later visiting the region.”
Mr Robinson, who taught fi ne art at several QUT predecessor institutions, said he had always impressed on his students that if they wanted their work to last, it should be a refl ection of where they lived. “Art is a personal statement from the artist. It has to be a refl ection of your life – if they live in suburbia, it should be a refl ection of urban liv- ing. I lived in the hinterland for quite a number of years and so I know that area is my home area,” Mr Robinson said. “The rainforest is a fairly closed, iridescent space and moist – a different light from the in-
terior entirely. I cared for the land that we had and I recognised its importance in terms of our environment and the preservation of the world.”
“Art is a personal statement from the artist. It has to be a refl ection of your life – if they live in suburbia, it should be a refl ection of urban liv- ing. I lived in the hinterland for quite a number of years and so I know that area is my home area,” Mr Robinson said.


- Mechelle McMahon