Tattersall's Club Landscape Art Prize 2011
Oxley has been invited to participate in the Tatteralls landscape art prize this year, and is exhibiting an artwork titled "Murray River Gums". The opening night cocktail party is held on September 7th, and then the exhibition moves to Waterfront Place in Brisbane on September 10th.
"Murray Gums" was inspired by Oxley's younger years having witnessed the slow degradation of the Murray River over the years. This image deliberately references the other "Murray", the indigenous people who lived along it's banks over many centuries. The stark linear patterns he has used in this image are influenced by the geometric patterns he recalls, carved into the trunk of a living Red Gum near Echuca. The "wood-cut" effect of this black and white method was the way Oxley wanted to convey his concerns for these trees and the grand old Murray River