OUTBACK ART
Heritage horsepower
Victorian 'bush artist' Peter Gasson expresses his passion for our rural heritage by celebrating the role of working horses on big, bold canvasses.
Story and photos Garry Aitchison
Peter Gasson is unashamedly sentimental when it comes to the pioneering era of Australian rural life, and the working horses that helped to create it. For 35 years he has been preoccupied with interpreting aspects of these early times, giving a special emphasis to the role of working horses. "Even after all these years, I never tire of painting the horses and the environment in which they served the early settlers," Peter says. "I enjoy my work immensely, but I guess I really don't consider it work in the usual sense. It's just what I love to do, and I still look forward to painting every day."
Peter's unbridled passion for reflecting our early pioneering days on canvas
has been enhanced by a quirky connection between his subject matter, which
often includes horses from the Cobb & Co. era, and his Axedale, Victoria,
studio and gallery. The old bluestone building in which he paints and displays
his work was originally a Cobb & Co. stable, where horses were rested
or changed on one of the early coach transport routes. 
Full story Issue 34 April/May 2004
