THREE years ago, a wrong turn led artist Joshua De Gruchy across the border from South Australia and into Broken Hill.
De Gruchy, who grew up on the south coast of Western Australia, had been living from his van, travelling and making paintings from the road, when he decided to head East in search of a new place to live and paint from.
“I’d never even heard of this place,” he said.
“I remember as soon as I arrived and drove around, I pulled up at Sturt Park and called my mum and I’m like, I really like this place.
“It feels dirty and it feels like I can walk around without any shoes on. That was my first feeling of being here. It just felt like a free place.”
De Gruchy said while he had always made art in some form, he hadn’t been as influenced by the landscape as he was when he began making work in the Far West.
“I spend lots of time out in Wilcannia and Menindee,” he said.
“I guess I continued visiting there because I really like the colours and the river. It felt like a good subject to learn about colour.”
Most of his works have some sort of personal story attached to them.
“I’ve begun to really enjoy the storytelling of my work,” De Gruchy said.
“Like, a memory attached to the time it was made, or even the temperature.”
He said he hadn’t been aware of the arts community when moving here but has been inspired by their way of life.
“It’s so supportive just to be around other artists living in their own way,” he said.
“Even if you don’t see someone for six months or something, you still know they’re around, making work. And I feel like that’s kind of motivation enough. So I feel like I’ve been really influenced by the lifestyle of a lot of people here that have encouraged me, it kind of proves there an alternative way of existing.”
De Gruchy said living in Broken Hill had also allowed him a lot of opportunities he might not have otherwise been offered.
“Another reason I’ve stayed so long is that even though you’re so remote, there’s a lot of opportunity for artists, like with West Darling Arts and the art gallery and the art exchange, who I’ve been a resident with for the last two years. There’s so many opportunities to make art and work with other artists,” he said.
“It’s been a huge boost for my professional practice.”
De Gruchy exhibited work made during his time in the Far West at Brunswick Street Art Gallery in Melbourne last month, and said the exhibition felt as though it marked the conclusion of his time here.
“When I saw everything up on the wall, it felt like it had been resolved,” De Gruchy said.
“Everything I’ve been trying to understand here, all the colours and the shapes, it felt like that had concluded.”
While travelling back to Broken Hill from Melbourne, De Gruchy said a painting led him to Castlemaine, where he spent the day.
“I’ve now found a studio in Castlemaine,” he said.
“Where I plan to do the next body of work, for however long that takes.”
He plans to move to Castlemaine later this month, but said he wants to remain connected with Broken Hill and plans to visit often and continue to help with installations of exhibitions at the City Art Gallery.
On a recent trip from Melbourne to Broken Hill after exhibiting a solo show of works made in Far West NSW, De Gruchy found himself in Castlemaine, where begins his next adventure.
