Moonlight over the Homestead (1974) – Sawrey Family Collection – SOLD
Detail photos for this Artwork
This delightful miniature, “Moonlight over the Homestead” was painted by Sawrey in 1974 when he lived at Boonah in Queensland. The scene depicts with charming simplicity a homestead at night lit by a full moon.
Choosing to depict the homestead under moonlight creates an eerily beautiful and serene atmosphere which aptly conveys the remoteness of the location, the stillness of the night in the country, and the way the moon often looms very large in outback skies.
Sawrey’s monochromatic and highly contrasted palette of brown and white creates a work that, whilst being small, has strong impact. He also skilfully conveys scale, using incisions in the paint to portray the boundary fence, and by making the homestead diminutive in the composition. Thus, Sawrey accurately depicts and emphasises how in the country, man built structures appear pin-pricked and small in scale when surrounded by expanses of open land and sky.
The painting is signed by Sawrey in his typical manner, with his surname and then an impression of his index finger dipped in paint and applied over the signature.
The painting has been held in the private collection of the Sawrey family for 49 years. Seldom do miniature oils by Hugh Sawrey appear on the market, especially with such a desirable provenance.
