I drove down this hill through the Mount Lofty Ranges every day on the road home from our office in Mount Compass. One day, there was the painting.

At the time, I was having problems with the concept of a painting being a 'picture' and felt the need to emphasise this by hanging it on a wall with the footballer and sign alongside, both being extremely useful in the dynamic of the composition, which was otherwise pretty ordinary. Of course, then everybody asked, why the footballer, to which there was no answer apart from that I decided to put him there, and then you get into the validity of images and all sorts of complications instead of just looking at the painting and accepting it for what it is.

This was the first time I attempted the bare brown hills, and began the long slow process of developing the right technique. I still don't feel I've got anywhere near it.

I did the painting again several years later, Landscape with Gumtree and Footballer 2.

**There is also a comparison of my development in painting the Mount Lofty Ranges on the Compare Hills Page.