Acrylic on canvas, stretched and ready to hang.

Signed on the front.

Glen Davis Capertee River is a special place where industrial architecture of the 1940s melts into the natural beauty of the Capertee Valley. The abandoned mining town of Glen Davis, located 200 kilometres from Sydney, is as dramatic as the magnificent valley the township rests in.

I first visited the mining town of Glen Davis in the 1980s, just 35 years after the town had ceased production of Shale Oil and people had left it desolate in 1952. It’s just one of those places that is a photographer’s paradise at any time of the day or night.

This painting draws its source from a photo I’d taken while crossing the river. As I crossed, I slipped on the green algae clinging to the river stones featured in the artwork. I remember having to make a split decision - protect my camera and take the fall - or let the camera hit the rocks and use my hands to stop my fall. The camera won, and I took the fall. For my pain, when I emerged from the icy cool water, Glen Davis rewarded me with this view of the river and rocks.

Geographically the Capertee Valley is recorded in the top 3 widest Canyons of the world, but it seems to lose the “grand “accolade because it is not as deep as the Grand Canyon in North America. What it misses out in depth it excels in for the colour of light and shade in the sandstone escarpments and for the ancient spirit of Capertee River. And now, the harsh smells from the distillation of shale oil have been replaced by the fragrant smoke of campfires, with billies boiling tea, in the Glen Davis campsite.