A melancholy ode to the Australian bush

CASTLEMAINE artist David Frazer’s new exhibition Another night on earth opens at the Ballarat Art Gallery 1 August.

The show includes a series of his wood engravings and linocuts exploring the human condition of which he is renowned for.

Featuring a range of new pieces and others from the past two decades of his practice, Frazer proves a great skill in portraying familiar Australian landscapes.

“I grew up in regional country Victoria, in the Wimmera so it’s the setting that I’m used to,” he said.

“Often, I have photographs that I work loosely from, sometimes I just start at a certain point and it organically grows.

“I like that rural, melancholic landscape and I also like the landscape to be an attractive picture.”

In his earlier years, he dabbled in art forms such as painting and drawing without prevail.

Frazer said he realised he wasn’t really interested in the bright colours of paint but instead in the storytelling component of art.

“What I really wanted to do was write songs which I couldn’t do and then I discovered wood engraving,” he said.

“I found it was the closest thing to writing a song.

“The wood carvings are all very small and intimate, more comfortable with telling narrative and like a song, they’re all about heartbreak.”

Amid our current climate disaster, bushfires and the COVID-19 outbreak, Frazer’s art hopes to articulate the importance of connecting with the environment around us.

The artist said he irreverently channels the past when creating his pieces, sometimes creating lush scenes and at other times emoting feelings of loneliness and devastation.

“I have concerns about climate change and this is shown through the way that my work is all about yearning for the past,” he said.

“Holding on to the past is a big focus in my art like holding on to when we had rain or when the farm was functional.

“It’s all a bit nostalgic, that’s the aim.”

Also found in the exhibition are a series of wood engravings Frazer made as tribute to his distant relation to the famous artistic Lindsay family of Creswick.

These pieces will be shown alongside a small selection of engravings by famous printmaker Lionel Lindsay himself from the Galleries collection.

“The Frazer family and the Lindsay family both lived in Creswick and I believe they might have originally come from the same village in Ireland,” he said.

Gallery director Louise Tegart added, “Frazer’s Lindsay family connection comes as a further point of connection with this area, enabling the Gallery to bring a new perspective and contemporary resonance to our ongoing focus on the Lindsay family.”

Ms Tegart said that aside from Frazer’s connection to the Lindsay family, they were very pleased to welcome some his best work.

“David Frazer uses his mastery of wood engraving and linocut to produce works that are breath taking in their complexity but that also speak to the heart during this difficult period in time,” she said.

“These prints are funny, quirky, touching and people will feel a deep connection to the work while admiring the mastery of the artist.”

Another night on earth will show at the Gallery from 1 August until 15 November.