Walking With Heysen - The Artist's Walk, The Cedars at Hahndorf. In the Adelaide Hills region of South Australia
A picture paints a thousand words and the art of Sir Hans Heysen, the nation’s greatest watercolorist, speaks volumes about his passion for our noble and ancient gumtrees. And now there’s a special way of appreciating his love of the Eucalypts.
The pretty little country road running up to the Heysen property through a chapel of gumtrees couldn't be more appropriately named. It's called Heysen Road. A visit to his house and studio is always an exquisite reason for coming into the Adelaide Hills but, today, we're walking into his paddocks with the artist, Sir Hans himself, to see the gumtrees he helped save and which he painted in a way that no artist has yet surpassed.
Here worked the first Australian artist to use native trees as the subject for his paintings. Before that they were just accessories in a landscape. Sir Hans Heysen celebrated their individual beauty and so he was called, " the portrait painter to the gumtree" and "the poet of the saplings".
Heysen was also one of our earliest greenies and while the council and landowners were felling trees left, right and centre, he went as far as paying the owners the commercial value of their great gums to stop them being destroyed. He once paid a 100 quid to save just one giant sentinel. The beautiful drives in the district are, in part, thanks to him.
The centre of Heysen's nature-loving universe is a legacy he's left for us all. The young artist and his wife Sally bought their dream home, The Cedars, in 1912 and it continued to grow as he bought up neighbouring properties to conserve more of his beloved gums. Now, along the Artist's Walk through the Heysen paddocks, you can literally lift the lid on his magnificent paintings, as some of his many works inspired by the protected stands are reproduced on the interpretive signs. The very specimens that inspired them are still growing before you.
One of Heysen's favourite places to paint was The Shady Pool and it's here, especially late in the day, that you understand the quality of light and atmosphere that infused his work.As he mused,
“What beauty enveloping light brings to ordinary things in nature.”
The ethereal white Candlebarks are a rare stand - there are just a few pockets in the whole region. And the ragged old Stringybarks, up on the rise, have seen two centuries or more roll by.
Alan Campbell, keeper of The Cedars for the Heysen grandchildren sees the effect of the nook on visitors…
“It’s a very spiritual place. Often they come up here and end up staying out here and sitting for hours, soaking up the atmosphere.”
As you wander the hillsides you’ll see the artworks - and the subjects, posing still in the light. We see Heysen’s vision thanks to the sense of sharing in his grandson, Peter. And, as evident by our conversation, he believes you’ll also sense the man himself. I asked him if, when he looked at the trees, was he also reminded of the painting? Peter replied,
“And I also see him because when I was little I used to come out here and he'd be painting, so he can still be there. So yes I see a painting, I see many paintings... but I see him too.”
You can even see his work in saving the bush as you roll past the apple stalls on the main road into Hahndorf. That long, green ridge of dense gum tree forest wouldn’t be there now if Heysen hadn’t bought the land to save it. It’s one edge to his beloved property, The Cedars - our living gumtree museum.
And in the book that enhances the stroll, there in his own handwriting, is Sir Hans’ observation about how often Australians only “get” what it all means once we go overseas and feel homesick. He says,
“It’s only then we realise how much Australia, with its warmth of sunshine, its blue skies and its wonderful trees, means to us.”
How true.
Sir Hans worked in his chalet studio for more than half a century and every time he came down through his English garden to the house for morning or afternoon tea (which he did punctually), what lay before him was testament to his own words...what had drawn him here many years before?..
“It was the beauty and serenity of the Onkaparinga Valley and it's Gums".
The charming book , Hans Heysen, Artist, Conservationist, Visionary, is $20.00 at The Cedars gallery and bookshop. A beautiful gift. And don’t forget that when you visit The Cedars you can tour the house itself and get a true sense of the lives of Sir Hans and Lady Heysen and the great people they often entertained. Their daughter Nora Heysen, a great name in Australian art in her own right, also had a studio behind their home. Now an art gallery, it is open to the public. And, after you’ve visited the chalet studio of Sir Hans, (which looks as if he’s just popped out for a walk , you can go to the old laundry of the family home to make your own cup of tea or coffee with biscuits and country style cake.
The Artist's Walk
The Cedars
Heysen Road*
Hahndorf, South Australia, 5425* Turn left off the main road to Hahndorf into Ambleside Road, and left again at the top of the hill into Heysen Road. Signposts are obvious.
Open everyday except Monday
Phone: (08) 83887277
Web: www.visitadelaidehills.com.au/thecedars
