Reflection of a Maestro
Audio description
Text description
- Title: Reflection of a Maestro (2023)
- Artist: Ox King
- Wall size: The tallest section is 6 metres by 4.5 metres. The total artwork length is approximately 14 metres.
- Location: 1 Myrtle Street, Stanmore
Stanmore Music Festival was created in honour of the late Richard Gill AO, who had a vision to bring music to the masses on the streets of Sydney. This street artwork portrait is a tribute to his place in music and Stanmore. It's a mirrored image of Gill conducting. He holds his baton in his right hand.
The artwork sprawls across the long side of a brick veneer, single-fronted terrace. Richard Gill's head and torso take up a narrow two-story section on the right at the building's front, 8 metres of the work at left is on a lower building with a sloping tin roof. Lush plants line the curb alongside the bottom edge.
On a vibrant teal background are strewn instruments, leaves and flowers. From left to right a drum with Ox King written on the skin and two drum mallets, a clarinet, French horn, violin (and bow) and a shiny trumpet. The instruments float, defined by light and shadow and interspersed with Banksia flowers and leaves of bright orange brush-like flowers with thin, grey-ish green clustered leaves.
On the largest section of wall is the upper torso and head of Richard Gill, a sprig of autumnal leaves sitting over his blond hair, a banksia flower either side of his head. Light gleams off his fair forehead, one blond bushy eyebrow is raised and his blue eyes shine from behind wire rimmed glasses. He has a long nose with a rounded tip, pink lips parted in a wide smile and a neat upper row of white teeth.
He wears a long-sleeved, khaki, collared shirt. The fabric is alive with creases and shadows. In the breast pocket of his shirt is a spray of myrtle flowers. The soft and small, pom-pom like flowers are unusual colours, yellow, orange and white. Three leaves wind their way through the cluster.
In his raised hands Richard Gill wields his conductor's baton, fingers of both his hands are curling, mid-motion. His fingernails are clean and neatly trimmed. Below his hands are four large, lush, leaves in shades of green. To the right of the work his left elbow protrudes, meeting another sprig of autumnal leaves where the building slopes down to a single-story front verandah.
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