I did this painting specifically for the $10,000 'Fleurieu Vistas' prize and won! I wanted to paint the hills dropping away beside the Old Willunga Hill Road, and on beyond across the farm/vine lands to the sea, but it was a mongrel of a thing. The spatial progression of browns was endlessly difficult - I repainted them over and over again, while the trees just would not come right.

A major problem was pulling the foreground forward, hence the tree trunks and dog. (the gumtrees weren't in the Fleurieu Peninsula, they were on the road between Birdwood and Charleston.) The dog was supposed to be a sheep, but there just weren't any good ones around at the time. As always, with all my paintings using foreground fences, the wire went in right at the end and tied it together, though not enough.

I finally gave up on it, in my opinion unfinished, the day before it had to be delivered.

I didn't enter again.

** There are more notes on the black dog on the Compare use of Black Dog Page and a comparison of my development in painting the Mount Lofty Ranges on the Compare Hills Page.