Susan Baird: Painting Place
3 - 24 May 2025
Works

Exhibition Text

Perched high in the hills behind Bathurst, the old gold mining settlement of Hill End has become a kind of painter’s paradise that inspired a compelling chapter in the annals of Australian art. The site was famously ‘discovered’ by Russell Drysdale and Donald Friend as they drove down Beyers Avenue on a cold night in August 1947. For both artists, it was a moment of instant recognition. The scarred landscape, the silent ruins and the casual sense of desolation became a powerful motif in the quest for a post-war reappraisal of the Australian experience.  

 

Fast forward to 1994 when an artists’ residency was established at the Haefliger Cottage as a prelude to The Artists of Hill End exhibition held at the Art Gallery of NSW the following year. It was an initiative that reinvigorated the region involving NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. It gave artists a unique opportunity to live and work on site, engaging  in the historic landscape that evokes a palpable sense of time passing, with its distinct seasons echoing the years of boom, bust, abandonment and eventual renewal. 

 

Susan Baird was one of the artists invited to take up a residency at the Haefliger Cottage in 2011. It was to become a life-changing experience for the artist that persists to this day. Baird described the initial encounter: ‘Being at Haefligers in April 2011 allowed me to watch how things unfold in Hill End from morning to night. It was great to be able to drag the easel outside to capture a passing haze or the flicker of a house light – the transitory moments in time.’

 

Today, Tambaroora is the site that constantly lures the artist from her studio, a short distance south of the painting grounds. Back in the 1850s, Tambaroora had been a thriving centre of activity - alluvial gold was the attraction. The diggings around the creeks and gullies were cleared of all vegetation in the search for gold. When the alluvial gold ran out, the miners moved south to establish Hill End and unearth the fabulous reef of gold at Hawkins Hill. Today, not surprisingly, a forlorn atmosphere pervades the Tambaroora site: smooth-trunked eucalypts have re-established in the clay soils and reappear in the artist’s recent body of work. The angles and forms of the trees act as an armature for the artist’s abstract impulse to energise the picture plane. It’s refreshing to see Baird’s loose, yet assured brushwork and tonal modulation take hold in works such as Dusk at the Creek, Quartz and Clay and Scrubby Bank Reflections.

A measured evolution has taken place in her practice over the years largely inspired by the Hill End and Tambaroora landscape. In hindsight, the impact of that initial encounter has endured. Today the artist continues to process the raw beauty of the place with an authority wrought from years of observation and experimentation. Her palette is informed by the varied pinkish/grey hues seen in the clay embankments. The scattering of pines in the gullies provide darker tones that contrast with the varied greens tones of the eucalypt stands as in Creek with Pines, Late Summer. 

Wandering about the battered landscape at Tambaroora and Hill End, the artist noticed interesting shards of pottery and crockery exposed after rains. The finds sparked associations of the tough domestic life women endured on the goldfields. While circumstances were often bleak, the hope of a lucky strike buoyed whole communities. The notion may have inspired works such as Reverie and Back Fence towards Bald Hill. 

The general atmosphere of the Tambaroora site is transformed after rain. Creeks begin to run and pool and a clear penetrating light pervades the place. In such moments, the artist’s attention is drawn to the creek beds and ponds that mirror a moment in time. The artist has captured the observation in a fine series of smaller scale paintings that include Lines in the Creek and Stanza. 

The series of works in Painting Place is a testament to the commitment Susan Baird has made to a place – a special place that continues to recharge the creative spirit. To a passing visitor, there appears little on offer. Yet, for Susan Baird, a talented and perceptive artist, the Tambaroora painting grounds will continue to inspire inventive excavations further enriching the artist’s impressive body of works. 

Gavin Wilson, Author & Curator

March 2025

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