Hulking moodily over a remnant of the nation’s colonial past, a pile of rocks flung against the side of a hill just west of the Blue Mountains has been a magnet for artists for two centuries, creatively and literally.
Known as Kew-Y-Ahn, Bells Rock or just The Tor, the granite rocks are embedded in the hill rising above Hartley Historic Site, between Lithgow and the Blue Mountains.
In 1865, one of the colony’s most important landscape painters, Eugene von Guerard (1811-1901) featured them in his painting Sunset in New South Wales.
Today, across the hill a bit and down, metal artist Ron Fitzpatrick from Blackheath unleashes his creativity in Talisman Gallery under The Tor’s gaze.
“I don’t know what it is about them – maybe it’s because they are granite and literally a bit magnetic, but I definitely draw inspiration from them,’’ Fitzpatrick says.
“They represent strength and reliability like metal and they have metallic qualities. But really, they’re just really beautiful at any time of the day or year.’’
Whether it’s the configuration of how they were arranged after eons of wear from rushing water from the Cox’s River and its tributary the River Lett, how their sheer size radiates an imposing presence or how the sun’s rays tickle their faces at dawn, the wardens of the hill have long-held a magnetism for artists.
Visible from miles around, Kew-Y-Ahn appears in the von Guerard painting, Sunset in New South Wales.
The Sydney Morning Herald of the day commented “The sunset scene ... is a beautiful painting but rather highly coloured’’.
A respected romantic landscape painter, his work celebrates the untamed, wild beauty of the Australian landscape and awe-inspiring presence, qualities most definitely displayed by the granite tor at Hartley.
He was on a quest for landscapes of a particular quality to sketch and develop into large oil paintings.
The Blue Mountains landscape, with its vast vistas, plunging gorges and towering sandstone escarpments and rock formations, was ideal.
Von Guerard discovered the rock outcrop during two visits to the Blue Mountains and Hartley in 1859, capturing the scene in sketches that June and December. Those sketches are held by the Mitchell Library.
Although the landscape of the Vale of Hartley had been sketched since its discovery, von Guerard’s work marks the transition from drawings recording the scene like a camera does today, to works of art.
“Like me today, von Guerard lived in a very cosmopolitan era when it was acceptable and even encouraged to experiment with art and culture,’’ Fitzpatrick says.
“That gave people like him freedom to create art in their own style, just like me and my art today.’’
Fitzpatrick’s own artistic journey began in the early 1980s, creating handmade knives and Tai Chi dancing swords in a small shop in Melbourne.
Since moving to Sydney in the late 1980s, his art and business has evolved from a need to provide for his family by making his own furniture from scrap metal, to trendy inner west wrought iron work, to finally settling in the Blue Mountains and Hartley.
These days his gallery collection includes large high-end pieces along with his signature metal art mirrors, small affordable sculptures and candleholders, and an extensive collection of imported jewellery and new crystal pieces.
Taking inspiration from ancient symbols and ideas he sees in meditation, Fitzpatrick believes that “being creative is a state of mind and I just don’t think people have learnt to let themselves access that part of themselves’’.
“Designs and ideas are all around us, you just have to become aware of them.’’
The rocks featured in von Guerard’s work can be explored today along the Kew-Y-Ahn Bell Rock Heritage Trail walking track at Hartley Historic Site.
Visitors to the site can also wander around the historic buildings, have refreshments at the cafe, watch Fitzpatrick at work and buy a unique piece at Talisman Gallery and even brave neck-bristling terror on an evening ghost tour.
Talisman Gallery at Hartley Historic Site, Great Western Hwy (400m before turn off to Jenolan Caves heading west) is open from 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Sunday. Details: Ron 0407 723 722 or info@talismangallery.com.au.
