Hunting in the Bush with the HR

Image of Hunting in the Bush with the HR

Art Centre

Independent Artist

Year

2022
Medium

Acrylic on canvas
Size

20 x 25

All packed up, all squeezed into the car, going for a Christmas picnic out. It was a bouncy, rough ride. Those days were hard to go through the bush with the family. The baby bouncing up and down. The damper and all that flying around. I was in the back with the gun trying to shoot the kangaroo. The bullets were flying everywhere. The kids were all crying. When we got the emu and kangaroo they were all happy.

Revealed 2023 Artist Michael Banks

Born

Leonora
Lives & Works

Ballajura, Perth

Banks is a Wongi man born and raised in the north-west of Laverton in Mulga Queen. He went to school with the old people, with his grandpop, learning the bush language, how to tell stories, how to make spears and boomerangs. Banks listened to what they said. When he was older, Banks worked on cattle stations in and around Mt Weld where he learnt to ride a horse by his uncles and rode around in an old army Willy Jeep chasing kangaroos. Banks is a self-taught visual artist currently based in Ballajura, Perth. His paintings are memories of his life, of his Country, inspired by his old people’s stories of the Dreamtime, and of how it used to be. Banks’ strength in colour harmonising allows for reminiscent landscapes, vibrant memories of Country, as well as haunting portraits.