Author(s): Jenny Zimmer

Art

Tim Storrier has painted sites in Egypt, Africa, Turkey and the West coast of America. Earning the respect of the art world in 1968 at nineteen by being the youngest ever recipient of the Sulman Prize, he collected it again in 1984. Perhaps his best known image is the 'blazeline' which appeared in the early 1980s, and symbolises much that is familiar about the Australian environment with its natural extremes of flood, fire and vast distances. If asked to clarify Storrier's approach to painting, it might be compared with the way artists of the European Romantic movement, such as Caspar David Friedrich or Joseph Mallard William Turner, were attracted to subjects that inspire awe, or even terror. These included swelling seas, shipwrecks and dangerous waterfalls. Storrier's broad landscape expanses, tumultuous seas, zips of flame and newspapers hurtling into space also provide truly awesome spectacles. While unashamedly Australian in their references, they are all the more awesome in the context of global warming and climate change. This book explores Storrier's themes and captures him painting in the studio or preparing a 'blaze-line' to be lit under a vast outback sky. Apart from the more familiar themes, in this book there are paintings that are lesser-known and expected to surprise.