Blue Mountains Journal

Wentworth Falls lake is a pleasant water playground and has some interesting sandstone sculptures around the shoreline. I have shown several examples of these in earlier posts .

When I am out doing the cafes I generally like to take in the galleries too. Perhaps one of the most famous poems set in an art gallery is Robert Browning's dramatic monologue My Last Duchess. I like this poem, its interesting to recite. Even though it is quite long I learnt it by heart when I was driving down to the city each day and spending more than an hour in bumper to bumper traffic. They say memorising things is good for a health brain -- it certainly beats listening to talk back radio. Words to walk with: From My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. "That's my last duchess painted on the wall, Looking as if she were alive. I call That piece a wonder, now: Frà Pandolf's hands Worked busily a day, and there she stands. Will't please you sit and look at her? ..." You will find the full poem here to read the whole drama.

We wandered around Norman Lindsay’s garden looking at the various fountains and sculptures. Photo: Fountain, Norman Lindsay Gallery garden Hugh McCrae was another poet in Norman Lindsay’s circle of friends. Words to walk with: From Rakes Song by Hugh McCrae “The fresh and lively all must fade, The painted and the sung ones, And Time – when they are in the shade – Consoles us with his young ones. Then, let the girls grow old apace, And wander into heaven … I’ll love a twenty-summers’ face When I am ninety-seven! So waste no sympathy upon Pale lovers idly wailing … For every naughty lass that’s gone There’s fifty more availing.”

We were feeling a little lazy and not much up to doing a long walk so drove down to Norman Lindsay’s place at Falconbridge. Norman Lindsay is an Australian artist whose depictions of nudes caused much outrage in the 1930s and beyond. His home “Springwood”, where he lived a bohemian lifestyle and established a lovely garden dotted with his sumptuous sculptures, is now a gallery and museum. Photo: “Springwood”. Norman Lindsay Gallery, Falconbridge Norman Lindsay included poets in his circle of artistic associates. One of these was Kenneth Slessor. Words to walk with: From Burying Friends by Kenneth Slessor [ … “for a little of our vital essence goes into the grave of a friend” – The Succubus, Norman Lindsay] “Only it seems not a burial Of irrelevant sods, But a lopped member From this my body; Almost, in fact, a tiny amputation, A paring of biography, thrown in there. And he has thieved his own life away And something from mine. Farewell, thou pilferer!”

And today a final shift in my nature sculpture series. We move from ‘sculptures of nature’ to a ‘sculpture about nature’ displayed at Echo Point, Katoomba. The words are from Hugh Spiers’ book Landscape Art and the Blue Mountains 1981.

Here is another of the sculptures by the lake. Photo: Sculpture by Wentworth Falls Lake Words to walk with: From The Lake by Edgar Allen Poe "In spring of youth it was my lot To haunt of the wide world a spot The which I could not love the less-- So lovely was the loneliness Of a wild lake, with black rock bound, And the tall pines that towered around."

Today I am changing direction from ‘sculptures by nature’ to ‘sculptures of nature’. Beside Wentworth Falls Lake there are is a series of sandstone sculptures interpreting the shapes of native plants found in the Blue Mountains. It is a delightful setting for them. Photo: Sculpture by Wentworth Falls Lake Words to walk with: From The Lady of the Lake (canto 11, st 22) by Sir Walter Scott "Some feelings are to mortals given, With less of earth in them than heaven."

Photo: Hillside from Hargreaves Lookout Hillsides with the trees against the light, always remind me of paintings by Fred Williams . Words to walk with: Williams achieved a breakthrough in his search for an aesthetic with which to describe the Australian bush: in his You Yangs series (I and II), he struck upon an iconography as idiosyncratic as handwriting and which rendered his works immediately recognisable. From www.fredwilliams.me.com.au

A mural painted on a building in Katoomba Street reproduces a photograph of Bridal Veil falls by Harry Phillips. Phillips, who lived and worked in Katoomba from 1908 to 1922, is famous for his souvenir albums of Blue Mountains tourist attractions and other historic photographs of the region. He had a knack for capturing the romance of the environment, not just nature itself. Tomorrow I will show you an example of his work as compared to one of my shots of the same location. Photo: Portion of mural celebrating Harry Phillips photography, Katoomba Artist: Michael Lynn, 2001 Words to walk with: From the blurb for a 1999 film The Blue Mountains of Harry Phillips “Using his still camera, Harry Philips served the clouds at the open air church of the Blue Mountains for 40 years at the beginning of the century. Nature provided all the answers for this unique visual poet in his life long quest for spiritual transcendence.”

At the end of the day weary commuters return from the noisy city, glad to count down stations to home as black night begins to swallow the day. Photo: Mural of 3801 train, Springwood Railway Station by Vern Treweeke, 2001 Next week I will show you some more of my favourite murals from around the mountains. Words to walk with: The Night Express by William Hurd Hillyer “There's a light at last in the sable mist, and it hangs like a rising star On the border-line 'twixt earth and sky, where the rails run straight and far; And deeply sounds from hill to hill, in mighty monotone, A distant voice—a hoarse, wild note with savage warning blown. 'Tis the night express, and well 't is named, for behold! from out the night It comes and darkly adown the rails it looms to the startled sight— Larger, nearer, nearer yet—till at last there's a clang and roar, A wave of heat, and a gleam of red from a closing furnace door; Then the crash and shriek of the rushing train—and our hea...

Photo: Boofhead in Amphitheatre Park, Leura A little further up the road on Olympic Parade there is an amphitheatre (opposite Leuralla, Toy and Train Museum) with another sculpture overlooking a lovely view. Many people consider the giant statues of Boofhead and Olive Oyl a modern example of insensitively placed public art. What do you think? Words to walk with: From the theme song for Popeye (Olive Oyl’s boyfriend) -- "I'm strong to the finach, 'cause I eats me spinach, I'm Popeye the sailor man! (toot, toot)"