One Tree Hill

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On a lovely spring afternoon, I walked to One Tree Hill (actually a hill with an entire forest of trees) to take photographs.

The wonders of spring beauty were present, particularly with the late-afternoon sunlight and plenty of wildflowers. I also love the landscape for its stark beauty (especially the contrast between the orange soil and the dark green of the plant life). It has a timeless ancient feel to it, contrasting with the relevant modernity of Australia’s built environment.  I notice a spiritual beauty to the landscape also.

The aim of this trip was to take photographs for the theme: ‘Art is Long, Life is Short’. These images were then applied to the cover for Ars Longa Vita Brevis (click here to view).  I photographed scenes that have an artistic beauty to them particularly with the use of sunlight, wildflowers and the structure of a lookout tower (it is in fact an old poppet head, of which many dotted the Bendigo landscape during the early mining days). I also took images looking in the distance to illustrate the fact that ‘art is long’.

The notion of life being short is illustrated in many ways. In fact, the wildflowers last only a short time in spring before the bush dries out for the summer months. In fact, as I am writing this page (two weeks after the photographs were taken), the wattle blooms are dying off. The theme of life being short is also communicated with the intensity of the sunlight, which lasts only a short time.