Spirit of Place: Swan River
Paintings By Alan Muller
2 - 21 September 2026
Linton and Kay Gallery Subiaco
299 Railway Road. Subiaco. Open Monday - Sunday 10 - 4 pm
2 - 21 September 2026
Linton and Kay Gallery Subiaco
299 Railway Road. Subiaco. Open Monday - Sunday 10 - 4 pm
Water is the custodian of life on our planet and an ancient universal symbol of Spirit.
These art works imagine a journey about two hundred years ago, along Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River from the river mouth at Walyalup/Fremantle to Katta Moorda/Darling Range. The series of small paintings that Frederick Garling painted along the Swan River in 1827 were some of my starting points and references.
My first thoughts about these paintings began in early 2025. 2027 is going to be the 200th anniversary of the 1827 Stirling led expedition to the Swan River. In 1827 Stirling used the river as an inland highway to look for agricultural land, access to fresh water, a possible site for a settlement and what resources were going to be available to hundreds of English people he envisioned would be coming here to live.
I was born on Wardandi Noongar land in Margaret River and have lived here in Perth on Whadjuk Noongar land most of my life, so it felt like I was looking in 2026, as if from the other side of a mirror.
In 2026 our rivers, lakes and wetlands are both the ancient and contemporary heart of our place. We live in a beautiful part of the world with amazing sky colours as the day begins and ends, in these artworks as a conversation of light between sky and river.
As cradles of life, civilisation and culture for many thousands of years, the Swan and Canning Rivers, the lakes and wetlands of Perth Coastal Plain are timeless waterways of immense spiritual and cultural significance where we can find calm, tranquility and an enduring sacred connection.
I have been painting for 60 years and it is still incredibly challenging but there was much joy in the making of these artworks.
These art works imagine a journey about two hundred years ago, along Derbarl Yerrigan/Swan River from the river mouth at Walyalup/Fremantle to Katta Moorda/Darling Range. The series of small paintings that Frederick Garling painted along the Swan River in 1827 were some of my starting points and references.
My first thoughts about these paintings began in early 2025. 2027 is going to be the 200th anniversary of the 1827 Stirling led expedition to the Swan River. In 1827 Stirling used the river as an inland highway to look for agricultural land, access to fresh water, a possible site for a settlement and what resources were going to be available to hundreds of English people he envisioned would be coming here to live.
I was born on Wardandi Noongar land in Margaret River and have lived here in Perth on Whadjuk Noongar land most of my life, so it felt like I was looking in 2026, as if from the other side of a mirror.
In 2026 our rivers, lakes and wetlands are both the ancient and contemporary heart of our place. We live in a beautiful part of the world with amazing sky colours as the day begins and ends, in these artworks as a conversation of light between sky and river.
As cradles of life, civilisation and culture for many thousands of years, the Swan and Canning Rivers, the lakes and wetlands of Perth Coastal Plain are timeless waterways of immense spiritual and cultural significance where we can find calm, tranquility and an enduring sacred connection.
I have been painting for 60 years and it is still incredibly challenging but there was much joy in the making of these artworks.
