The Governor’s Paddock

“The Governor’s Paddock” is just that; an acre or so of rural England attached to the residence of the Queen’s representative in Tasmania. I have chosen to paint it, as it seems the symbolic centre of the core tension in the landscape – its colonial nature ­–­ a nature that pits alien fauna, flora and ideas against those endemic. The green rectangular paddock lies back in the dry space of the Mouheneenner people. It is ringed with oaks and stocked with cattle. In the middle distance, smoke from crematorium and factory mingle over the sparkling and chartered Derwent.