Jean Isherwood's 'My Country' watercolours

Jean Isherwood is one of Australia's well-known artists.

Painting has always played a significant role throughout Jean Isherwood’s life. In 1959, when Jean realised her passion lay with painting landscapes, she borrowed £50 to buy a car and began travelling. While travelling through Crookwell, NSW, Jean was struck by the dramatic vision of “stark ring-barked forests.” She thought, “I simply must paint the poem ‘My Country’”, which she had learned at school.

Over a period of years, Jean sketched and photographed various phrases of the poem. In 1974, Jean drove to Alice Springs and spent three weeks enjoying the colours of the landscape in Central Australia. On her way back to Sydney, she decided to visit friends at Tamworth and fell in love with the “very paintable” district. In 1976, Jean moved to the Tamworth district and bought a property at Moonbi.

Sometime later, Jean heard Mrs Mikie Maas from Gunnedah on the radio about the proposed sculpture of Dorothea Mackellar being created by Jean’s friend, Dennis Adams. This was the catalyst Jean needed to paint ‘My Country’ and thought “If I’m going to paint the poem, it has to be done NOW and it has to be ready for the unveiling of the sculpture on Australia Day 1983”. Jean contacted Mrs Maas and soon after, began work on the 32 watercolours. She had only two months to complete her assignment and so, working on kitchen tables and sideboards, Jean worked tirelessly.

The watercolours were finished on time and were ready for viewing on Australia Day 1983.

Following the completion of the watercolour collection, Jean produced a collection of oils. These paintings were all sold individually and are hanging in various locations throughout Australia.

The Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society Inc.raised funds to purchase the watercolour collection which is now proudly exhibited in the Gunnedah Bicentennial Creative Arts Centre. The collection is also available for loan. 

A selection of greeting cards reproduced from the watercolours are available at the Gunnedah Visitor Information Centre or through the Dorothea Mackellar Memorial Society Inc.

The inspiration behind Jean Isherwood's watercolours in the My Country collection

1. I love a sunburnt country – a view from a hill on Moonbi Ranges, NSW

2. A land of sweeping plains – strip farming, Liverpool Plains near Willow Tree, NSW

3. Of ragged mountain ranges – Flinders Ranges

4. Of droughts – 1981 drought, Monaro Highway, between Canberra and Cooma

5. And flooding rains – McDonald River in flood, Moonbi hills, Bendemeer, NSW

6. I Love her far horizons – back road vista opened up on a wide plain done from memory, Qld

7. I love her jewel sea – beautiful shapes and patterns below the water, foreshore near Townsville, Qld. Jean memorised this scene because she forgot her camera

8. Her beauty – just as the last rays of the sun as it caught the top of the Spinifex, Alice Springs, NT

9. And her terror – bushfires in the Blue Mountains, NSW, flames lashing out - memory and imagination

10. The Wide Brown Land for me – Berridale near Cooma, NSW during the 1981 drought

11. The stark white ring-barked forests – 1959-1960 composition, Armidale, NSW to Tasmania

12. All tragic to the moon – memories from driving at night around Armidale, NSW

13. The sapphire-misted mountains – on the road from Moonbi to Gloucester, NSW

14. The hot gold rush of noon – road to Dungowan, NSW

15. Green tangle of the brushes – rainforests all over the coast from Bega, NSW to northern Qld

16. Lithe lianas coil – composition – rainforests

17. Orchids deck the tree tops – out of books

18. Ferns the warm, dark soil – composition

19. Core of my Country – gum trees beside Lake George near Canberra

20. Her pitiless blue sky – drought year, Narrandera/ West Wyalong, far western NSW

21. When sick at heart, around us – from a dam with a fascinating shape, West Wyalong, far western NSW

22. And then the grey clouds gather – dramatic wonderful sky approaching Singleton, NSW - from a photo

23. And we can bless again the drumming of an army – a woolshed along the road from Dungowan, NSW

24. The steady soaking rain – remnant tree trunks are one of Jean’s favourite objects, near Inverell, NSW

25. Core of my Heart, my Country – dirt road, Killarney, NSW near the border in the early 1960s

26. Land of the Rainbow Gold – looking over the Peel Valley.  The first time Jean had painted a rainbow, Moonbi Ranges, NSW

27. Through flood – in the air near Broken Hill, NSW around the Darling River which was flooding at the time

28. And fire – Lady Wakehurst Drive near Narrabeen, NSW

29. And famine – 1981 drought, near Goulburn, NSW

30. And she pays us back threefold – in the Peel Valley between Moonbi and Tamworth, NSW

31. Over the thirsty paddocks – mauve mountains, Cooma-Monaro Highway, NSW

32. The filmy veil of greenness that thickens as we graze – from Jean’s window in her studio in her Moonbi home looking down into the Peel Valley, NSW