‘Hill End Entangled’. Solo Exhibition / Book Launch.

Andreas Shershoff joins me at the major event

It has been something of a whirlwind year. Between relocating to Sydney, completing the final paintings for Hill End Entangled, finishing the accompanying book, and mounting a show in London, the months seem to have collapsed into one long stretch of work, travel and the occasional moments of reflection. The blog, regrettably, has been rather neglected in the process, so my apologies for the silence. I hope to make up for that in the coming weeks with a series of posts reflecting on the past year, the paintings, and some of the ideas behind the work.

One of the highlights of the year was the launch of Hill End Entangled at Lethbridge Gallery, Brisbane in November 2025. Book launches are interesting occasions. They are part celebration, part relief, and part the slightly surreal experience of seeing something that occupied your mind for years suddenly become a physical object sitting politely on your table. Happily, the evening was generous in spirit and full of friends, family and the kind of conversation that only art seems to provoke. None of it possible without the continuous support of my patron, Chevalier Yves Hernot.

The book itself gathers a body of work made in response to Hill End, a place that has long exerted a peculiar gravitational pull on Australian artists. Once the largest inland town in the colony during the gold rush of the 1860s, Hill End now sits quietly among its hills and gullies, carrying its history with a mixture of dignity and mild eccentricity. Rusted machinery, collapsing mine shafts, improbable cottages and long views over dry country combine to produce a landscape that seems already half interpreted, as though the place itself were collaborating with the artist.

It is hardly surprising that Hill End has become something of an artistic mecca. Painters have been making the pilgrimage there for decades, drawn by the strange poetry of the place. The landscape contains layers: the ambitions of miners, the scars of industry, the resilience of the bush, and the quieter traces of lives that passed through. It offers, as all good subjects do, more questions than answers.

My own time working there often felt like wandering through a landscape thick with stories. One becomes aware not only of the physical terrain but of the imaginative one, the myths of gold, the ghosts of machinery, the odd cultural fragments that have accumulated over time. As an artist, it is impossible not to read the place symbolically. The hills invite speculation, the ground itself suggesting hidden narratives just beneath the surface.

Hill End Entangled attempts to capture some of that atmosphere: the sense that landscape, history and imagination are woven together. The paintings and drawings trace encounters with the place, many moments of discovery, fragments of myth, and the peculiar beauty that emerges from the collision of nature and human ambition.

More reflections on new and old work, and the year that produced it will follow here soon. After such a busy stretch, it seems only fair to let the dust settle and tell the story properly.

My book is still available for purchase at https://bonfirebooks.org/product/hill-end-entangled-by-australian-painter-ryan-daffurn/

It was a chance to discuss the seven year project with the Lethbridge Team and participation from the audience.