Pugh was one of many artists who brought an Australian experience to attention. This work reveals the colour, textures, harshness and inhabitants of the natural bush, with the angular forms found on the ‘black birds’ dominating the composition with dramatic effect. Shanahan, Albert Tucker, Frank Werther and Fred Williams have at one time settled and or work there. Untitled (Black Birds) from the Bodford Terrace Suite 1978, created by Clifton Pugh - a celebrated Australian artist known for his landscapes and portraiture as well as (three-time) winner of Australia’s Archibald Prize. This piece plays a significant role within the Nillumbik Shire Collection due to Pugh’s strong connection to the local land where he settled in Cottle’s Bridge in 1951, purchasing 15 acres and named it Dunmoochin. Artists, potters and others settled at Dunmoochin and formed the Dunmoochin Artists Co-operative in order to collectively protect the land. Numerous renowned artists worked or resided at Dunmoochin including: Rick Amor, Fred Williams, Albert Tucker, Frank Hodgkinson, Mirka Mora, John Olsen, John Percival and John Howley amongst others. Upon his death in 1990 he left an art collection and extensive properties at Dunmoochin to be appreciated and utilised by artists for years to come lithographic print on French Arches paper. Dynamic and expressive depiction of black birds in flight on far left of composition, cropped elements of Australian landscape in blue and red in the background (trees, shrubs, rocks). Inscribed lower right 'Clifton'; 1:1; 179/300clifton pugh, bodford suite, dunmoochin

A typical Olsen painting combines an implied aerial view with an ambiguous and seemingly unpremeditated figuration. His characteristically quizzical line and irregular squiggles and dots deftly render countless organisms, large and minute. Their environment is conjured through loosely brushed and stained expanses of colour (on canvas or hardboard) and lines which sometimes read as geological mappings. In Olsen's work there is no foreground/ middle ground/ background, nor any sign of European landscape's concern with "human scale." Instead he employs simultaneously the contrary vantages of naturalist and geographer. 'Tropical Rain Shower' by John Olsen forms one of the eight artworks represented in the Bodford Terrace Suite. Eight of Australia's finest artists were brought together to create a folio of lithographic prints to celebrate the restoration of historic Bodford Terrace. Printed at the Druckma Press by John Robinson under the supervision of master printer Jock Abbott. The folio edition was limited to 300 signed and numbered folios. The lithographs were printed on special heavy weight french Arche's paper in accordance with the tradition of this artistic medium. Lithographic print on paper.Signed John Olsen '78, lower right hand corner. Edition 179/300bodfford terrace collection, john olsen, tropical rain shower