Spring Frost, Elioth Gruner
Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Like many of the artists in Australia who were impressed by the approach of French Impressionism as its influence spread from Europe to other continents, Australian artist Elioth Gruner has used short separate strokes of color to portray the effects of light in his composition.
What is a bit unusual is his use of choppy, almost rectangular vertical strokes in his suggestion of the texture of the sun-streaked foreground pasture.
Link: Spring Frost, Google Art Project
I love this painting. My grandmother – in dairy country & from a dairy family – had a very small print of it on her wall when I was a child. I was shocked when I stumbled across the real thing in the AGNSW one day 20 years later – it was so much bigger, and much more evocative. That rim light on the cows is actually a shockingly BRIGHT orange/salmon when viewed up close in real life, but works so well in describing the luminous glow of warm sunlight through warm fur, of life, in the crisp, cool morning. This painting was the first time I experienced that visceral thrill at the difference between the real thing in the flesh compared to the print that was a mere shadow by comparison.
Thanks, Toria. I appreciate your first person impression of the painting. Unfortunately, those of us in the US don’t get to see work by Australian painters in person very often.
His painting Spring Frost printed on a microfibre cloth for cleaning sunglasses, reading eyeglasses, cameras, cell phones, iPods, computer screens, television screens and any LCD screens.
Artist: Elioth Gruner
Dimensions:
14.5cm wide
14.5cm high
What a lovely piece of art reminds me of my village.
Had a print of this one the wall in the studio in florence, luckily had an australian studio mate that showed us a lot of great ozzie art we wouldn’t have been exposed to otherwise. Great painting, lovely broken color effects
In retrospect, this painting, and particularly the foreground has probably influenced my work quite a bit
Interesting. Thanks for the insight, Leo. I’ve been discovering more Australian artists recently. We don’t hear enough about them here in the US.
Painted at Emu Plains NSW in 1919 and my very favourite painting. I agree with Toria’s comment and love to visit the Art Gallery NSW just to see this painting.