In 2005  Shane Pickett travelled to Darwin for the Telstra Art Awards in Darwin. His painting of the Six Seasons being chosen as a finalist piece for the exhibition. Whilst in Darwin for the awards, Pickett undertook a week long printmaking workshop with printmaker Dian Darmansjah at Northern Editions  located at Charles Darwin University. The resultant suite of prints ”The Six Seasons” was both an aesthetic triumph, as he developed new techniques on the plates to create the subtle textural images for the prints, and a significant stimulus for the body of major paintings which he executed over the next years.

In Pickett’s artist statement to accompany the print series he stated:

‘Living with dependence on the weather cycle, the Nyoongar people had to master and understand every aspect of the local weather pattern; they had to be nomadic and travel long distances for food and water. At times a season might be cold and rainy so that hunting became difficult, or be dry and hot so waiting by a water hole for thirsting animals was easier than hunting and running long distances for little return. There is a season of thunder where the sky is full of lightning, and a season where the bloom of wildflowers somehow brings peace and contentment to mankind, where animals and even the floral blooms seem to celebrate.

The seasons are Muguroo, Djilba, Kambarang, Biroc, Bunuroo, and Wanyarang. They represent fertility, conception, birth, infancy, youth and adulthood. Ceremonies punctuate the seasons, which continue in their cycle, year on year. The people practice ceremonies to teach new generations, children and initiates to respect and live with the six seasons. The cultural knowledge was handed down to me by my parents, uncles and aunts.

For me personally to carry this knowledge and to pass it down to the next generation is very important for today and for tomorrow.

Mossenson Galleries proudly present  Shane Pickett’s  exhibition “ Six Seasons’ to coincide with the launch of Booka Dreaming.