Nick Hollo: harbour & coastal walks

Our city is endowed with hundreds of kilometres of scenic foreshore walks. It is one of the few places in the world where people can take a holiday or a weekend away in their own city, do it all on foot (along with flippers and snorkel) and enjoy an enormous diversity of natural and urban delights.

This exhibition of Nick Hollo's recent oil pastels showed some of the highlights, contrasts and underlying characteristics that he loves about these walks. They include the soft, mottled texture of the sandstone layers that are so evident all around the headlands, the glimmer of water through the treed slopes, the contrast of urbanity with the bush, the incidental baths and rockpools, often with their natural, rocky floors teeming with sea life, and the jacarandas in bloom in November. As usual with Hollo’s work, the pictures were made on site, trying to capture the light and the mood of the time.

Sydney's harbour and coastal walks have recently been mapped by volunteer walkers and by local, state and Commonwealth agencies working together to link the various foreshore parks under their jurisdiction. These pictures are intended as a tribute to their work and an enticement for all of us to go out and explore.