In his artist's statement, Robert Juniper pays homage to tropical Australia, its landscape, flora and fauna.  He likens himself to a tourist in this country, and the works in this exhibition to 'image notes' of where he has travelled.  I'd say they are more like painted symphonies produced by one of the recognized doyens of Australian art.

The paintings exhibited contain the signature attributes of Juniper's best work.  Fields of flat colour are pushed and brushed over the surface allowing underlying layers to show around the edges.  Odd shapes of colour are converted into tree trunks or flower blossoms by defining them with etched contour lines, which again reveal a different hue below.  Familiar subjects of crabs, crayfish and fishermen seem quite logical even if distorted or floating in unreal space, while the use of arbitrary colour reinforces the sense of wonder and adventure to be experienced in Kakadu or the Kimberley.

The paintings range in size from very large, through more manageable dimensions, to small.  Of the latter, a series of three works in gold and ochre tantalize the eye and mind.  Man and Roo, Keeping in the Picture and Pas de Deux each offers a kangaroo and a figure in odd poses as they are constricted by the picture frame.  They are icons to the rhythmic energy of two different species who must occupy the same space and somehow make room for each other.

Juniper's draughtsmanship cannot be overstated.  When he's not using the etched line to 'draw' into his paintings, he employs a pen and ink to composed a simple black line, which may be splashed with water to soften it, or left solid to travel over a colour speckled ground.  The drawings offer the most variety of subjects including nudes, still lifes and snippets of narratives.  But there is no use trying to decipher what the Man With a Broken Horse will do or if the sharp short lines across the Family Group of roos represent bullets, as I feel certain the drawn line (not the story line) is the only raison d'être for the image.

This is a splendid exhibition and one that will be enjoyed by everyone who attends. By the number of 'red dots' it can be assumed many are thankful Juniper has brought his work within reach of the general appreciator.  His out sized paintings, though quite beautiful to fall into, mean only the corporate collector with plenty of wall space could display them properly.  By reducing the size without diminishing the quality, as seen here, the artist has considered his audience who can now happily hang one of his works at home without needing to add an extension onto the house.