The late nineteenth century through to the early twentieth was a golden age for Australian watercolour and this site showcases several artists chosen to represent a cross-section of the abundant talent from the period. The work on display includes Calvert's large bird studies, Cocks' and Fitzgerald's depictions of the New South Wales south coast and Blue Mountains, Peerless' colonial vistas of Australia and New Zealand, Tristram's ethereal and romantic imagery, Blamire Young's emphatic use of colour and William Young's superb rendering of equine subjects.
All these artists painted exclusively or primarily in watercolour; an unforgiving medium that requires control and patience. In the hands of the skilled warercolourist its transparency produces an immediacy and freshness completely different to the richness of opaque oil paint. Rather than adversaries, however, watercolour and oil are complimentary and many of Australia's best-known artists of this era, names such as David Davies, Hans Heysen, Sydney Long and Arthur Streeton, recognised this fact and adeptly worked with both.