Jinker on a sand bank with moon

Arthur Boyd first visited the Shoalhaven in January 1972 on a weekend trip while undertaking a six-month fellowship at the Australian National University in Canberra. He and his wife, Yvonne, visited the homestead Bundanon, near Nowra, owned by his friend and Sydney art dealer Frank McDonald. Struck by the wild beauty of the landscape, Boyd painted one work that weekend and immediately began to make plans to purchase a house in the area. Invigorated by his visit, back in Canberra, Boyd began to paint landscapes en plein air for the first time in more than 10 years. However, Boyd noted: “…the Canberra countryside doesn’t have the depth of shadow or the harshness of the Shoalhaven, or its primeval quality. The Shoalhaven is the only untamed landscape I have ever seen.”

Returning to London after the fellowship ended, Boyd painted, from memory and detailed sketches done it situ, a series of paintings of the Shoalhaven. During this time in London, the Boyds, through Frank McDonald, purchased and commissioned the renovations of a property near Bundanon, Riversdale, and returned to Australia to live there in 1975 after 14 years in England. In 1979, the Boyds purchased Bundanon. As well as the ‘straight’ landscapes, the Shoalhaven would also become the backdrop to Boyd’s exploration of mythological and allegorical stories, such as the works in the Narcissus series.