this exhibition of bushfire art features an amazing painting which I had on the list for the book but didn't make it in:



(William Strutt, Black Thursday February 6th 1851)

as Christopher Allen says in The Australian, it's not necessarily the best historical painting, but it captures the terror of the animals and humans perfectly.

usually it lives at the State Library of Victoria. what struck me most about it was the rendering of the sky; the depth of the glow behind the dark smoke. and it's big; the sort of art you can sink into

the exhibition is on in Healesville until July 25, with lots of other photos and paintings of Victorian fires and their aftermath. but if you can't get out there, it's worth wandering into the Cowan Gallery at the SLV later in the year and standing in front of this. see if you don't feel a bit warmer, or wonder if you smell smoke...