“Like "Red Gums, Hunters Lane", this painting is a deliberate attempt to infuse some new qualities into my work of that period, particularly in the painting of local subject matter. The heightened chroma and simplification of forms accentuated by a more rhythmic quality, endow the picture with a decorative characteristic which places it outside the category of the picturesque. Such colour harmonies, despite the heightened intensities, particularly in the road, do nevertheless exist, and it is the artist's prerogative to select and emphasize these certain qualities in his quest for expression. Unlike oil painting, watercolour and gouache can be unforgiving media, and once a commitment is made to the initial marks and washes on the paper, one must employ a certain deftness of touch to develop the work and retain the initial freshness. Some technical planning before painting is essential.” John BorrackPart of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrackmernda

“A nature painting commenced on site and completed in the studio. More of a morass lying to the west of Yan Yean Reservoir in Dunnets Road, this intriguing site has nevertheless all the primeval qualities associated with swamps in general. The rhythmic movements of the old red gums dominate the surrounding bush with the tranquility of the water from recent rains. Painted directly onto a saturated sheet of rough paper, the large masses of foliage and integrated sky areas determine the tonal and colour key of the painting, while the strong horizontality of the lower water area stabilizes the design and contrasts with the vertical and oblique rhythms of tree trunks. The white of trunks and branches have largely been achieved by the lifting of colour with a stiff wet brush although slight touches of bodycolour are added for a few critical accents. Such a subject and its execution demands a sound concept and plan before any painting is commenced as the wayward nature of the medium demands great control. The painting must be bold and decisive. Sometimes the qualities of the medium should be allowed to take over in its wateriness and its soft and hard edge properties.” John BorrackPart of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrackyan yean

“A nature painting commenced on site and completed in the studio. More of a morass lying to the west of Yan Yean Reservoir in Dunnets Road, this intriguing site has nevertheless all the primeval qualities associated with swamps in general. The rhythmic movements of the old red gums dominate the surrounding bush with the tranquility of the water from recent rains. Painted directly onto a saturated sheet of rough paper, the large masses of foliage and integrated sky areas determine the tonal and colour key of the painting, while the strong horizontality of the lower water area stabilizes the design and contrasts with the vertical and oblique rhythms of tree trunks. The white of trunks and branches have largely been achieved by the lifting of colour with a stiff wet brush although slight touches of bodycolour are added for a few critical accents. Such a subject and its execution demands a sound concept and plan before any painting is commenced as the wayward nature of the medium demands great control. The painting must be bold and decisive. Sometimes the qualities of the medium should be allowed to take over in its wateriness and its soft and hard edge properties.” John BorrackPart of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrackmernda

This is a conventional watercolour. This fine old farm with its beautiful white barn was a landmark in South Morang until its demolition in the late 1970's. It was one of the first subjects in the area that I painted in the early 1950's. I later learnt from Alan Sumner, friend, painter and onetime head of the National Gallery School, that he constantly painted the same subject, as no doubt did other artists before him. I was quite upset about its demise, with the erection of a service station on the site. The two red gums are still there. In view of the quickening development of the area in which many historic landmarks, buildings and landscapes were disappearing, I painted the picture in my earlier more picturesque style purely to serve as a historical record of another lost legacy of the Plenty Valley. The early afternoon light and shadows through the red gums which frame the barn and outbuildings are all painted with a direct fluency on wet paper, to which the crisper touches were added after the initial stages were dry. The colour scheme evokes a typical summer's day and is uniquely Australian.Part of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrack 86 The Farm, Sth Morangsouth morang

The expression of the spirit of a place which in landscape painting is aesthetically more important than a literal topographical recording, can really only be achieved after a lifetime's experience of an area one has constantly observed, painted and loved for its innate characteristics. I gaze across the red gum plains of the Mernda landscape from my studio and witness them in all seasons and moods. Such a painting as this, free of all inhibitions of literal transcription are done relying purely on memory impressions. These are often inspired by a particular season or day, but the content of the work is a total of past experience and observations that lie in one's mind. The staccato quality of tree forms against vast horizontal spaces, the open colour planes and marks that define forms, the calligraphy and tonal resonance of the work, all find their origins in direct observations of nature that remain with me. Experience has taught me that the more direct and less complicated one can express an idea in watercolour and gouache, the more significant and vital the work will be. Occasionally one succeeds and manages a complete statement without recourse to reworking or additions. This painting typifies the direction in which my major work started to move in the late 1980's. Part of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrackmernda

Like Purple Plain, Mernda and Mernda Heat Haze this painting was a further development from aspects of the Basalt Plains series of the 1990's as seen in Mernda Plains Landscape. This picture has a greater minimalist quality about it, having been painted in the studio during a particularly wet spring when some of the surrounding flats were indented by channels of water. Greens are not a colour harmony I work with often, but here help convey the essence of the seasonal landscape. A much more formal structure has been emphasized in this picture in which atmospheric space has been almost negated in favour of a much shallower field of colour and two dimensional surface rhythm, an actual effect one can sometimes see under certain conditions of nature, particularly in a flat country. I have always had some respect for one or two of the better colour field painters of America in the 1950's and 1960's who actually untilzed expressive broad bands of colour harmonies in their work, but didn't classify them as landscape paintings. My own feelings on the subject are to avoid the clinical precision that such an approach can bring, and thus indicate some actual reference to landscape in a work, a horizon, however subtle, or marks indicating actual forms that give some scale to the work. I suppose the idea first occurred to me when I saw J. M. W. Turner's wonderful painting, Evening Star, in the National Gallery in London many years ago. In this work a few bands of mysterious colour and exquisite harmonies with one or two references to figure, sand, sea and sky, transmogrify everything into a magical unity. It serves as a revelatory example of how all art is dependent on abstract qualities and how great artists like Turner are able to conceal those qualities without lapsing into a forced mannerism.Part of the John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest, donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John BorrackJohn Borrack '90mernda