John R Walker

About the work

Archeologist Rhys Jones described Anbarra elder and AIATSIS Council member, Frank Gurrmanamana’s reaction to Canberra in 1974: “a land empty of religious affiliation; there were no wells, no names of the totemic ancestors, no immutable links between land, people and the rest of the natural and supernatural world…a vast tabula rasa, cauterised of meaning… not a place of domesticated order, but rather a wilderness of primordial chaos.”

However, in the karst country just to the south, the rivers still flow below our feet; Kurrajong trees still mark those places of deep hidden wells. And Lake George still comes and goes. The Lake’s coming and going and those deep hidden wells are reminders that the spirit is still here, all around us, all it needs is open eyes and an open heart.

About the artist

John R Walker was born in Sydney where he lived until a deepening and passionate commitment to ‘painting the experience of being in the landscape’ led him to move to Braidwood in 2003. He is a five-times Archibald finalist, a regular Wynne Prize finalist and is represented by Utopia Art Sydney. Acknowledged as one of Australia’s leading landscape painters, he is a professionally practising artist who has exhibited regularly for almost 40 years, both nationally and internationally. Over the past 20 years, Walker’s work has focussed upon painting signs for the experience of walking in the landscape. His work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, major state and regional gallery collections and in private collections in Australia, UK, France, China and the USA.

Represented by

Utopia Art Sydney