The John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest

With one exception, the forty paintings of the The John and Gillian Borrack Federation Bequest were painted in the Plenty Valley, where John Borrack has lived and worked for over forty years.

The paintings in this collection were donated to the City of Whittlesea in December 2001 by Gillian and John Borrack. Approximately half of the collection is presented here.

Provenance
Gillian Borrack Collection, City of Whittlesea Federation Bequest

Exhibited
John Borrack Athenaeum Gallery, Melbourne 1965.

I lived at Eltham on my return from Europe, and during the Autumn of 1965 I painted a series of large watercolours from the motif of the high ridges in the vicinity of Warrandyte Road, the Lookout and Henley Road, Kangaroo Ground.

The point of the exercise was to renew myself with that stimulating traditional type of subject matter that had inspired so much Australian Landscape painting. However, it was not only the pastoral and scenic qualities that inspired me, but also the great sense of rhythmic space engendered by this landscape. The painting largely completed on site shows a combination of wet and dry methods of watercolour, and a commitment to making abstract marks and planes of colour to express both light and form.

Literature
“Borrack having started with the structural lessons of Cézanne, has developed a Streeton-like interest in Turner’s absorption with light. His paintings of tree capped hills and valleys are radiant works, although a trifle repetitive both in subject matter and movement. He handles the watercolour medium sensuously and with great control but I would like to see more variety and more emphasis on formal structure.” Allan McCulloch 1965, Melbourne Herald, 20th August 1965. 

5. Eltham White Gums
1967 Napier Crescent, Eltham
Watercolour & ink on Kent Paper on board
75 x 55 cm
inscribed l.r.: John Borrack ‘67
White Gums Napier Cres. Eltham

Provenance
Gillian Borrack Collection, City of Whittlesea Federation Bequest

The paddocks and woodlots around Bolton Street and Napier Crescent Eltham where we lived in the mid 1960’s abounded in typical Eltham bush. Many of the white gums painted by Walter Withers, whose old studio is still in Bolton Street, were still extant. I made many studies both large and small of these beautiful trees, but chose to see them from the point of view of semi abstract forms devoid of the picturesque concept of gum tree painting. White paper, overlapping transparent planes of colour and an effort to understand form volumes and space in the surrounding bush, dictated the technical approach. Quite often as in the Mud Hut, Kangaroo Grounds (Cat. no. 3) from the same period, forms were emphasized by ink lines to help reinforce the rhythmic qualities of the subject. Such paintings were usually worked out on the motif under a steady light in summer when the sun was still high, or on a grey day when strong shadows did not destroy the purity of the forms. Light and the effects of light in nature tend to destroy forms. The discipline required in the observation of a complicated bush landscape and the ability to effect it aesthetically in a painting requires a more cerebral approach to nature than straight landscape painting or tonal impressionism.

Provenance
Gillian Borrack Collection, City of Whittlesea Federation Bequest

Exhibited
Art Gallery New South Wales Wynne Prize, 1968.

Having painted in Provence in 1964, I had Cézanne very much in mind as well as the tradition of Australian landscape painting. This large watercolour was made possible by my discovery of several sheets of Antiquarian size paper which was particularly difficult to find in Australia at the time. The painting came out of the many trips and painting camps William Frater and myself enjoyed in the Strath Creek area. The hill is known as Lade’s Hill, located behind the Strath Creek Hotel and seen from the hills to the north. The hot dry summer landscape is evoked by broad washes, while dots, dashes and a variety of marks indicate the busy contrast of trees against the relatively simple surface of the hill which is carefully analysed into structural planes and forms. The commitment to a more geometricized approach to landscape, shows the acceptance of Cézanne and Cubist principles. The painting has also overtones of Frater’s large Mt Bogong in the National Gallery of Victoria which was painted at Tawonga and Alphington in my presence. It has much in common with the Kangaroo Ground series of panoramas of the same period.

Provenance
Gillian Borrack Collection, City of Whittlesea Federation Bequest

One of many broad watercolours painted directly from nature in a favourite paddock of red gums in Bindts Road, Wollert which I first discovered as a child.

The use of charcoal which fuses with watercolour to give an enhanced tonal quality is particularly suited to outdoor work of this nature. The use of white paper and transparent overlays on dry paper show a lasting influence of Cézanne and Dunyoyer de Segonzac, two artists I have always highly respected. The painting dispenses with the picturesque by both its formal structure and abnegation of atmospheric effects. Frater had a saying that a work was finished at any stage of the execution provided the painter was working correctly and taking his sensations and tones from the motif. Perhaps such a painting is intrinsically better than a highly completed work such as Light and Shade, Wollert (Cat. no. 14) which shows the same subject from a slightly different angle together with a more emphatic pictorial effect.