The patterns of nature, and those Kenneth Macqueen imposed on it, were a never-ending source of inspiration for the artist as he described: ‘Perhaps your quarry may be a newly noted clump of trees, passed a hundred times before without the beauty of their shapes realised, or a freshly green crop laid like a counterpane on a straw-coloured hillside.’¹ 

In this watercolour, the furrows created by the tractor lead the viewer into the landscape and upward over rolling paddocks to a hill set high against a cloudy sky. The method of contour ploughing depicted was introduced from America, and employed by the Macqueen brothers, Kenneth and Jack, from the mid-1940s in an effort to reduce soil erosion. Macqueen captured the striking visual effects produced by the technique in a number of watercolours including this one and Contour ploughing c.1945. In Harvesting scene, the contrast between the areas of light and shadow cast across the paddocks by the clouds provides additional visual interest. 

Endnote

1. Kenneth Macqueen, Adventure in Watercolour: An Artist's Story, Legend Press, Sydney, 1948, p.10.