WHEN Luke Wagner was considering submitting an entry for the Hadley’s Art Prize, it made sense for him to look close to his home at Government House in Hobart for inspiration.
Luke’s wife is executive chef at Government House, which gives him a great opportunity to see and paint nearby landscapes such as Bruny Island, 11⁄2 hours away.
This year’s theme for the prize is History and Place, with finalists like Luke depicting Australian landscapes that acknowledge the past.
“I had heard about early French exploration at Recherche Bay,” he said. “My painting is about the French meeting the indigenous population.
“They welcomed the French by painting the faces of the French sailors with charcoal, so they looked like them. It’s such a simple gesture.”
To add an extra element to his work, Luke collected eucalypt branches from Adventure Bay and burned them to make charcoal, which he then mixed with paint to create his work, A Different History, Bruny Island, Tasmania, 1793, in black and white.
“It’s quite a dense painting, quite layered in meaning,” he said. “It’s the most sophisticated painting I’ve done before.”
Luke started painting in 1994 and creates imagined landscapes from memory.
“I often travel and then come back and paint landscapes that are evocative of Tasmanian landscapes, but not a specific place,” he said. “It gives me freedom to paint and I like anyone to have a reaction to the work and understand it.”
Over the years Luke has experimented with different colour palettes, including strong saturated colours and monotones with hints of colour, before switching to black and white for this latest piece.
He has also worked as an artist in residence at The Hutchins School, teaching students to research subjects they wish to depict and then think the idea through.
This process gave Luke a new way to express his ideas.
“Working at the school made me research more and that’s how my Hadley Prize entry was processed too.
“Studio time is 20 per cent of the whole thing; there’s lots of thinking time. “It’s very exciting and very prestigious.”
Hadley’s Art Prize entries will be exhibited at Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart until August 25.
