Artist Statement

Lake Balard - Acrylic on Linen

                                                 Rich & Rare

The Western Australian Goldfields with its rich cultural history and exhilarating present is my inspiration to experience the vast open lands of ghost towns. My works combine both natural forms of nature and the results of corporate mining activity. An approach that is employed into my paintings is the thick sculptural layering with a palette knife, using acrylic on canvas, then overlaid with soft washes of colour and fine brush markings to create depth and atmosphere which display's the energetic surface of the harsh Australian terrain. 

People forget that it was not just the prospectors that were searching for gold, whole communities evolved and developed around the mines. The exotic names of Broad Arrow, Gwalia, Niagara and Bulong, like the many community's that came along,they flourished like wild spring flowers and faded away when the gold petered out, old mine digging's, broken coloured glass, tin cans, rusted out washtubs and broken down machinery left to rust, forgotten, to the once bustling  mining towns, it's an empty silence, just like the grave sites, with there own story to tell as well.

I was born a miner's daughter and spent my early years living next to a working gold mine Mt Charlotte in Kalgoorlie. I remember running up and down an open pit with the family pet dog, playing on slime dumps, exploring old mine digging's and family picnics in the bush. I am excited to able to share with you my experiences and interpretations of the richness of the Goldfields cultural past and interweaving this with modern times, showing the rare beauty of the regions.

Susan Radaich Artist
City of Cockburn WA
September  2016