Vines in Autumn
61 x 51 cms 2001
I was commissioned to do
Vines in Autumn and Vines in Spring for a red and white label for the
Wilson Vineyards. This label won the FINAT Prize for letterpress
printing, for the Adelaide printers at a major competition in France.
Commissions are difficult things, attempting to fulfil someone else's vision, because, however much freedom I might be given to interpret their subject, it will always be judged against their own preconceptions. I try to avoid them.
Anyway, having taken a great many photos of Wilson's winery and of vines elsewhere I ended up making a simple composition into which I fitted not only John Wilson himself but some of the buildings he had constructed.
Then I had to learn how to paint vine leaves.
