JOHN RICHARDSON
Gallipoli – Past and Present
Acrylic on Canvas
65-5 x 76cm
This painting encapsulates the memory of the ANZAC’s, and today’s regenerated Gallipoli peninsula.
My visual story: (Clockwise)
A distant St James Cathedral represents Great Britain, from which orders are issued to deploy the ANZAC’s to Gallipoli.
Although time melts away, Aust. Private Robert William Hartley’s pocket watch forever captures the time of the first advance. His watch stops in the salt water as he exits his landing craft.
Soldiers, like migrating birds today, gather along the peninsula.
A young ANZAC finds safety behinds a wall of sandbags. He sees himself as a ‘sitting duck’.
Red roses denote the blood spilt and lives lost.
The Navy, symbolised by a menacing shark, sits offshore, just as the Australian submarine HMS AE2 patrolled the Dardanelles coastline.
The Rev’d Captain Alexander Maxwell’s flag flew proudly, as he ran between the fallen ANZAC graves. He was on one of the last boats to depart Gallipoli in the successful and famous withdrawal.
A bugle player is always a reminder of “The calls to arms” and “The Last Post”.
In the centre of the painting, ANZAC’s stand with their heads bowed – lest we forget.
