Beerwah

Beerwah. Oil, enamel on plastic. 120 x 160 cm.

This contemporary  landscape painting depicts Mt Beerwah of the Glasshouse Mountains. This mountain is a powerful and mystical presence in the Australian landscape. I painted Mt Beerwah after I worked in my art studio at the base of the Glasshouse Mountains in 2016. Figures are revealed  in this contemporary artwork when it is studied. Women and babies are painted into the mountain.  Beerwah is known to help a woman conceive if the woman throws stones at the base of the mountain and asks for help.

The First Nation's people have a dreamtime legend of the Glasshouse Mountains which  tells of pregnant Beerwah and her son Coonowrin and husband Tibrogargan.  Coonowrin is the son of Tibrogargan (father) and Beerwah (mother). Tibrogargan asked Coonowrin to look after his mother in a storm. Instead of looking after his pregnant mother, he ran off, then his father hit him on the back of the head and he hasn’t been able to straighten his neck ever since. Coonorwrin is also locally known as Crookneck Mountain.