Noel McKenna South Coast

Noel McKenna paints scenes from his everyday environment, focusing on overlooked details to reveal poetic and poignant aspects of the world around him.

South Coast portrays a spare coastline that has been mostly cleared and permanently altered. Two birds perch on a fence in the foreground, indifferent to the separation between ocean and park. In this unpeopled setting, the Norfolk Island pines and bald headland in the distance have near anthropomorphic qualities.

McKenna explains that this work ‘is of no place in particular’ but made from memories of trips to places south of Sydney, such as Thirroul, Wollongong and Port Kembla: ‘I used to often get the train down from Central. One gets glimpses of the coastline from the train, so this image is a sort of fusion of views I have noticed.’

This is McKenna’s 26th time as a Wynne Prize finalist. He has won the Trustees’ Watercolour Prize five times, of which two paintings were South Coast landscapes.