Glenbrook lagoon trees and sky reflected in the blue water in this landscape painting

Green parker lounge chairs and lamp in modernist home with large landscape painting of dark trees in a lagoon with reflections of sky

Indigo living space with hanging chair and side table, large landscape of Glenbrook Lagoon in Blue Mountains

Looking Glass, 2022, oil on canvas, 116 x 89 cm

$3,900.00

This work extends an investigation into landscape as a site of perceptual instability, where reflection, obstruction and inversion disrupt a fixed reading of place. The composition is structured around the surface of water, which operates not as a passive mirror but as an active field that doubles, distorts and reconfigures the image.

Darkened trees form a threshold at the foreground, simultaneously framing and limiting access to the lagoon and sky beyond. This creates a tension between invitation and resistance, where the viewer is held at the edge of the scene rather than fully entering it.

The reflective surface produces a near-symmetry that unsettles orientation. Sky, foliage and water collapse into one another, allowing the image to oscillate between clarity and dislocation. The landscape becomes ambiguous—less a stable location than a shifting perceptual experience.

While grounded in Glenbrook Lagoon in the Blue Mountains, the work reconstructs an internal state rather than documenting a specific view. It engages with moments where perception falters and the familiar becomes uncertain, shaped by memory, reflection and psychological space.

Medium: Oil paint on stretched canvas
Location: Glenbrook Lagoon, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
Subject: Reflections of trees, sky and clouds in a lagoon
Colour palette: Ultramarine, indigo, phthalo blue, yellow-green, burnt umber, black, white

This work extends an investigation into landscape as a site of perceptual instability, where reflection, obstruction and inversion disrupt a fixed reading of place. The composition is structured around the surface of water, which operates not as a passive mirror but as an active field that doubles, distorts and reconfigures the image.

Darkened trees form a threshold at the foreground, simultaneously framing and limiting access to the lagoon and sky beyond. This creates a tension between invitation and resistance, where the viewer is held at the edge of the scene rather than fully entering it.

The reflective surface produces a near-symmetry that unsettles orientation. Sky, foliage and water collapse into one another, allowing the image to oscillate between clarity and dislocation. The landscape becomes ambiguous—less a stable location than a shifting perceptual experience.

While grounded in Glenbrook Lagoon in the Blue Mountains, the work reconstructs an internal state rather than documenting a specific view. It engages with moments where perception falters and the familiar becomes uncertain, shaped by memory, reflection and psychological space.

Medium: Oil paint on stretched canvas
Location: Glenbrook Lagoon, Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia
Subject: Reflections of trees, sky and clouds in a lagoon
Colour palette: Ultramarine, indigo, phthalo blue, yellow-green, burnt umber, black, white

Artwork Specifications

Certification:
This artwork is an original contemporary Australian landscape painting, signed and dated on the back by the artist.

Art Gallery Quality Premium Materials:

Art Spectrum and Windsor & Newton oil paints applied over a Matisse Acrylic Gesso
12 oz Cotton Canvas
Art Spectrum Professional Stretcher Bars with cross bracing

Painting Dimensions:
116 cm (h) x 89 cm (w) x 3 cm (d)

How to Install or Hang Your Painting:
This painting benefits from good lighting so that the rich colour tones in the dark trees can be fully appreciated.

Given the scale of the artwork, it can be hung above furniture, or in a stairwell or hallway, where it can be viewed from a distance.

The gallery standard is to hang the painting so that the mid-point of the artwork (height) is approximately 155 cm from the floor. This may vary depending on ceiling height, furniture, or whether the space is used for sitting or standing. It is not recommended to hang oil paintings in direct sunlight, as UV rays can damage the pigment and cause discolouration.

Framing:
An original oil painting on stretched canvas of this size and in a contemporary style is often left unframed when installed in modern homes or offices.

This work is currently unframed, however, framing can be arranged by agreement. The artwork is ready to hang with Australian gallery standard D-hooks and wire.