Landscape painter Darren Gannon's mystical vistas evoke the calm of pastoral scenes from the late modernist painter period. Expansive skies impress over misted forests, absent of human presence. Atmosphere is heightened by Gannon's wonderful shrouding of diffused even light so that the detailed brush work of landforms float on the low horizon line. A dream-like mood emanates from the shrouded bushland and cavernous hillsides. Returning to stretches of Western Coast NSW, Gannon accumulates working drawings on site, sketching elements of weather or impressions of a landscape, in order to generate the content for his paintings back in his Sydney studio. In 2008 Gannon studied under the artist Alexander McKenzie whom he sites as an inspiration. “In the past 12 month I have had the opportunity to spend some time in the Monaro region of NSW, south of Sydney. Given the regions close proximity to the Snowy Mountains it is both a beautiful and challenging environment to work in. The fluctuation in temperatures creates a variety of conditions. The light can be quite filtered, taking away the harshness that sometimes affects the Australian landscape. This atmosphere creates a veiled impression of the scene in front of you. It is the kind of place where you not only see things, but scenes are heightened… some of the compositions are invented, in an effort to portray how people fit into this landscape. I did find that once you got out of the towns, the area took on a completely different personality. I went from just looking at what is quite a beautiful landscape, to wondering how people living in these remote areas see this place and what makes them want to live in such isolation. Are they out here because they crave solitude or is there something else behind this disconnection from the greater populace. I didn’t want to put figures in the landscape as such, however I wanted to suggest their presence by way of vehicle headlights or the single light of a distant house.” Darren Gannon 2010 Darren Gannon is represented by Libby Edwards Galleries in Melbourne.