At Thirroul 1994
Oil on Board
71x60cm
Signed Lower Right, Titled, Dated & Signed verso
Prov: Private Collection Adelaide
$20,000-30,000
Garry Shead’s celebrated D. H. Lawrence Series is among the most significant achievements of his career, combining Australian landscape, literature and personal mythology in a distinctive body of work. Developed during the early 1990s, the series was inspired by the English novelist D. H. Lawrence and his wife Frieda, who spent several weeks in Australia in 1922.
During their visit, Lawrence and Frieda stayed at Thirroul, a coastal town south of Sydney, where they occupied a bungalow named Wyewurk. It was here, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, that Lawrence wrote much of his Australian novel Kangaroo, published in 1923. The novel explored Australian society, politics and national identity, drawing upon Lawrence’s observations during his brief but influential visit.
For Shead, the Lawrence story provided an opportunity to explore the relationship between people and the Australian landscape. Throughout the series, Lawrence and Frieda appear as recurring figures, often depicted together against the dramatic coastline and rolling hills of the Illawarra region. Shead’s interpretations extend beyond historical narrative, introducing elements of romance, symbolism and imagination that transform the couple into almost mythological figures within the landscape.
Painted in 1994, At Thirroul dates from the formative period of this celebrated series and returns to the coastal setting central to Lawrence’s Australian experience. The D. H. Lawrence Series remains one of Shead’s most recognised and sought-after bodies of work, representing a defining achievement in his artistic career.
