Hues of Green

Hues of Green 65.5cm x 17.5cm Original Oil on Board by Werner Filipich

Werner says” A rather adventurous challenge for me to paint and capture the green hues of the river and riverbanks of the Bellingen River, this painting completed on site before the shadows of the perfect day changed all the colours completely.” “The Bellinger River the way it was, with wide electric-green fields pushing down on to the river. The banks are like green cliffs of camouflage pierced with giant knitting needles and spun and tangled all about with ferns and creepers”.

Bellingen, known to the locals as “Bello”, is an attractive township in the heart of the Bellinger Valley surrounded by rich pasturelands. It is a town which historically serviced the surrounding dairy farmers and timber cutters. Over the past twenty years it has become a popular inland retreat from “treechangers” who do not want to live on the coast. Once you move away from the village you see the valley as it was when dairy farming was king.

Werner says: “After our recent move to the hinterland area of the gold coast settling into the small but popular township, situated only 15 minutes from the famous gold coast area. Together with the additional work involved in setting up a new home, the time has come for me to get back to my passion of painting. After all the heavy rains which caused so many damaged roads that surrounded us, I am now ready to reach out and explore the beautiful coastline and Hinterland of the Tweed Valley areas. There are numerous mountain and river scenes to put on canvas, it will be exciting for me to explore different areas and observe the different colours that they put forward as a challenge.”

Werner was born in Austria in 1943. In 1950 Werner and his parents migrated to Australia. Whilst Werner is by trade a hairdresser his great love of his new country inspired him to paint. At first painting was just a hobby. However, a growing reputation coupled with the crisp, refreshing style Werner has created, has bought him considerable sales success, particularly with investment conscious art buyers. He is mainly self-taught and is a dedicated traditionalist artist painting mainly in oils and specialising in rural and coastal scenes.