Arcadia
We all have a view, etched in our memory that feels like home.
The Arcadia Collection is the first in a series of works celebrating the Australian landscape—not just looking at it, but capturing the feeling of it, the light, the atmosphere and those places of memory that anyone who has lived in the country will recognise. This is art that draws upon traditional techniques, while also embracing modern expression. I want an enduring legacy for my children and grandchildren, and so that I could say, ‘I saw that, I interpreted that, I created that’. – Sarah Hope
The Artworks
‘Casterton’
Dimensions: 152cm (60in) x 101.5cm (40in)
Material: Acrylic on canvas
Investment: $8,500 AUD INCL. GST (Framed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
This painting the inspiration for the entire collection. In my novel, Canvas, I referred to the hills between Coleraine and Casterton like ‘plaited artisan bread’. They are one of the most beautiful places in the world. I wanted to paint a view, especially in spring, of these green rolling hills, and the magnificence of their scale. For the first time, I included livestock, and these tiny sheep took me days! Each one has their own personality and posture. I really felt this painting set me on this incredible path for months, where all I wanted to do was discover new views, new light, and see my own landscapes with a fresh eye.
‘Home - Late Afternoon’
Dimensions: 180cm (71in) x 150cm (59in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $9,500 AUD INCL. GST (Framed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
We’re lucky enough to live on a hill, surrounded by farmland. And the first thing I do when I walk out of the house, is to look at the light. Sometimes it is so ethereal, and so beautiful, it takes my breath away. This particular afternoon, in late spring, I could hear the insects buzzing, the birds chirping — but it was this layer of almost misty sunlight over the paddock, out from our garden, that I wanted to capture. The strangest thing about painting a familiar landscape, is that once you’ve painted it, you see it in your mind again and again — cyprus, a particular set of gum trees – you feel you know them intimately. Painting ‘Home – Late Afternoon’ was my first more intimate landscape, as opposed to grand vistas.
‘Hinterland’
Dimensions: 61cm (24in) x 91.5cm (36in)
Material: Oil and acrylic on canvas
Investment: $5,500 AUD INCL. GST (Framed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
‘Hinterland’ is an ode to life in the Northern Climes. The lush green in those Northern Rivers of areas of New South Wales, is close to the lurid green of England. When the ground is baked here in southern Australia, you can fly north and it’s lush and green due to the wet summer season. ‘Hinterland’ is symbolically looking from a point of height out to the sea, and there’s something very special about that gentleness of distance, time and space.
‘After the Storm’
Dimensions: 76cm (30in) x 101cm (40in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $3,500 AUD INCL. GST (Unframed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak + $400 AUD
‘After The Storm’ is another view close to home, and once I started painting trees as part of the Arcadia collection, I became obsessed with the different tree forms and their relationship to the landscape. We have beautiful big skies here — a vast dome, often the distant blue half-shrouded by voluminous clouds and changing weather. When I switched to oils early in this collection, I became passionate about painting clouds. The oils made them easier to blend, and I felt a new freedom in this. I want you to feel the mistiness of the sunlight and the shadows, and droplets of water glistening on the tree tops, and the quiet stillness after a storm ends.
‘Towards Coleraine’
Dimensions: 76cm (30in) x 76cm (30in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $2,500 AUD INCL. GST (Unframed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak + $400 AUD
Some years ago I painted a large work, ‘Before the Break’, and this shared a similar energy—but a tad more brooding. While that could be said, this is also a sky that we welcome after the relentless heat of February. This is a different view, descending into Coleraine, high summer, with a massive change coming. While I love painting green, there’s a reality in our climate and weather, where it gets very dry – and there’s a beauty in that bleached grass when it’s about to be drenched, that I wanted to capture here. You can feel the shift in pressure, and smell the rain coming.
‘Flight Over Marshland’
Dimensions: 46cm (18in) x 61cm (24in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $1800 AUD INCL. GST (Unframed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak + $300 AUD
This was partially inspired by Port Fairy, Victoria, and the coastal wetlands there. This was a more ethereal landscape rather than literal, and the seagulls more or less, are in a timeless setting, which could be in a coastal place you know. I painted a smaller work in conjunction with this, as a commission, and the colour palette was an attempt to create a more dream-like landscape, of a place we’d want to be. ‘The Land That Time Forgot’ is the title of the companion painting, and ‘Flight Over Marshland’ feels like a continuation of that universe.
‘View of Glenaroua I’
Dimensions: 30cm (12in) x 30cm (12in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $980 AUD INCL. GST (Framed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
Recently we visited our son, who has been working on this vast property north of Melbourne. He took us on a tour and it was like a private safari! The views in every direction were gobsmacking. The layers of the paddocks, distant trees and mountains drew me in. There was the most delicious and subtle yellow glow from the sun from the west, which cast beautiful long shadows in the distance.
‘View of Glenaroua II’
Dimensions: 30cm (12in) x 30cm (12in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $980 AUD INCL. GST (Framed)
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
I turned ninety degrees to the right from the first vista, and had this view. The gravel laneway circles through the property, and back to the homestead. Despite its practical purpose, there is something symbolic about a road leading somewhere beautiful. It evokes the timelessness of Impressionistic interpretations, the brushwork in this painting is deliberately more loose. To me, this work represents how Australia can still feel like a relatively unspoilt land of possibility.
[SOLD] ‘On the Hopkins’
Dimensions: 30cm (12in) x 30cm (12in)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: SOLD
Framing: Raw Tasmanian Oak
While painting a larger commission, I decided to paint a smaller companion work to get my eye in for the main piece. I find this extremely helpful in becoming closer to my subject; light, pasture variation, reflections on water, and subtle differences in grasses. As an artist, you can add or remove anything you like in interpretation—in this instance, the tree was larger on the right, but I wanted to highlight the dense textures of the grass and reeds near water. I also wanted to experiment with showers of rain approaching—something we’re entirely accustomed to in South West Victoria!
‘Lake Hamilton – Early Morning’
Dimensions: 20cm (8inch) x 25.5cm (10inch)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $680 AUD INCL. GST
Framing: Acrylic (40cm x 45cm). Alternative mounted oak framing available if desired (+A$150)
From a photo captured by my daughter, Georgina Morrison, this work depicts ‘Blue Hour’—a wintry twilight. I drive past this view every day on my way to the studio, and while it’s customry to almost become immune to the view, sometimes the light over the lake is just too beautiful to ignore.
‘Western District Study’
Dimensions: 20cm (8inch) x 25.5cm (10inch)
Material: Oil on canvas
Investment: $680 AUD INCL. GST
Framing: Acrylic (40cm x 45cm). Alternative mounted oak framing available if desired (+A$150).
When I begin a collection, often a few hero pieces come through almost immediately, like Casterton and Home—but afterwards, I sit with the question of what theme and palette the collection will progress to next, and can I translate the feeling of my chosen theme in the smallest of works, not only larger ones. Greens are often the most challenging in all of artists’ palettes, because they vary almost daily, as you’re encapsulating different light; not only capturing a season, because the colours in our landscape are so dependent on rain.