Meet Roscoe and his artistic passion
Roscoe has always been fascinated by Australia’s outback.
Against the relentless, harsh reality of the desert, there are fleeting moments of beauty. It might be the morning or evening light catching a cliff face, it might be the desert clouds or the reflections at sunrise or sunset, it might be that transient splash of water or some vegetation after a recent desert sprinkling, but there is always a reminder that human beings are bit players in the march of geological time.
The outback serves as a beacon to be reacquainted with our core values and an understanding that the natural world facilitates.
There is no better place than Arkaroola to harness the inquisitive mind.
Roscoe uses his art, an authentic depiction of an authentic landscape, to bring that understanding of the power of nature to an interested audience and “perhaps draw them into experiencing this remote reality for themselves”. Being “over the hill” does not mean you stop looking and learning, it is just another challenge.
Roscoe draws on his experience of the outback, the desert and their contradictions. He sees the harshness, the unforgiving rule of nature, with the ever marching tide of the evolution of the earth, the volcanic morass, the crashing tectonic plates and the bubbling acid baths to the dry river beds to the steep sided gorges, where water crashes through once in a decade and yet creates something of beauty.
Throughout Roscoe’s life, he has spent much time out on the open roads of the outback. He was a proprietor of the iconic Flinders Camping and had many opportunities to walk in the Flinders Ranges, The Gammon Ranges and around Arkaroola. He never got tired of the frequent road trips between Adelaide and Darwin, taking the opportunity to understand the localities of the Flinders Ranges, the central Australian ranges and the parks of the Far North. It was inevitable that Roscoe would turn to painting in Australia’s outback. He is attuned to the detail in the landscape – “You get drawn in, it opens up, layer by layer. The geology, the colour, the understanding of how it became, the flora, the timeframes that extend beyond season and the clues to the very formation of the earth”.
ARTWORK
Roscoe paints two main landscapes – Arkaroola and South Australia. His other works include beach landscapes and still life.
Click on the links below to view his paintings.
