Geoff McQualter

Geoff McQualter agrees with Paul Gauguin's sentiments that "the search for a purer, more spiritual man uncontaminated by western civilisation" is the logical fulfilment of all serious art endeavour. To that end the artist incorporates symbolism into his work in his search for an unadulterated and more spiritual expression of the landscape. While he also acknowledges an inspirational debt to Tim Storrier and Antoni Ta`pies, the balance between theatrical realism on the one hand and a synergy of Arte Povera and Art Informel on the other, his paintings reflect the mechanics of his own mind, sensibilities and logical confluences. Although his paintings have a contemporary heritage, it is equally true that the composition's restrained complexity, attention to surface finish, and a modern version of chiaroscuro for dramatic effect, owes much to past masters like Caravaggio and Leonardo da Vinci.

While the elegance of blooming flowers, the soul of purity, is often a recurrent theme, the striped pole appears as a prop to enhance perspectival depth in the picture plane - both literally and figuratively. The vertical striped poles are a measuring device. McQualter says that as western man has become more sophisticated there has been a corresponding loss in his ability to relate to, and see, the landscape with innocent eyes: hence the "metaphor of the measuring device as the barrier to true vision". His pallette currently favours earthy heartfelt colours like ochre, burnt sienna and raw umber, again symbolic of the spiritual quest beginning with the essence of the earth itself. And the picture's surface texture, a deep gloss/semi-gloss of many layers (an allusion to the many layers of human conditioning) gives the finished piece cohesion, richness and a mystical significance.

Despite being evocations of the beauty of the landscape, these elegant works are much more than that. They are puzzling, mysterious, iconographic, esoteric and lyrical.

His work is represented in private and corporate collections including

IOOF, Guild Commercial Group, Pinnacle & Partners and the CSIRO.