City Hill two

City Hill two
Mixed media (acrylic and oil paint) on canvas
101cm x 75cm x 2.5cm
$750

Canberra is famous for roundabouts. One of many such traffic calming devices is City Hill which now sits between the City Centre and the road to Commonwealth Avenue Bridge which crosses Lake Burley Griffin. I’ve often admired the whimsical looking trees as I’ve whizzed by in my car.

Reading in a local paper about the rabbit plague currently occurring on City Hill reminded me that it was about time I jumped on my bike, rode over and took some photos with the intention of finding inspiration for a painting.

I had been there once previously as a teenager looking for a public space to hangout in. Judging from the empty wine cask and remnant ‘Hard Solo’ cans strewn around park benches 40 years later, teens are still using City Hill with the same illicit intention as I had then.

It’s a very odd place, difficult to get to or from without getting run over (as the rabbits have discovered). The trees look like they belong to another era and place. However, these conifers are well shaped if a little old and brittle. At the base of most trees are rabbit diggings and burrows. The surface of the ground is covered with layers of dried-up droppings and yellowing stubble eaten down to the roots. It is dusty and rather uninviting. No wonder teens still go there, no one with a better option for outdoor entertainment would choose it as a location for anything.

I’ve painted this image on a reused canvas that I got from the Green Shed. I’ve left some of the patterned surface visible as I liked the idea that there’s a different history on which another one has been layered.