Above the Oodnadatta track – 200x100cm

Peter Griffen
Australian Artist

Peter Griffen (b. 1948, Henley Beach, Adelaide) paints the Australian interior as memory rather than record. Ranges, waterways, tree lines and ochre earth stay recognisable in his work, then dissolve into fields of colour and gesture, then reassemble into something closer to what a place leaves behind than to what it looks like. He works across oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolour, moving between them as a way of testing the same idea from different angles.

His method is a deliberate loss of control:”I believe that to make discoveries risks must be taken, the traveller must get lost. A well planned journey can only lead to an already known destination. At some stage the painting must go out of control. From chaos the universe was formed. The artist enters chaos and by taking control, synthesising and simplifying, new images are discovered — images that are potent and speak from the past.”

Peter Griffen
Australian Artist

Peter Griffen (b. 1948, Henley Beach, Adelaide) paints the Australian interior as memory rather than record. Ranges, waterways, tree lines and ochre earth stay recognisable in his work, then dissolve into fields of colour and gesture, then reassemble into something closer to what a place leaves behind than to what it looks like. He works across oil, acrylic, gouache and watercolour, moving between them as a way of testing the same idea from different angles.

His method is a deliberate loss of control:”I believe that to make discoveries risks must be taken, the traveller must get lost. A well planned journey can only lead to an already known destination. At some stage the painting must go out of control. From chaos the universe was formed. The artist enters chaos and by taking control, synthesising and simplifying, new images are discovered — images that are potent and speak from the past.”