William Robinson (b.1936) was born in Meanjin (Brisbane)
in Queensland. He began painting in the 1960’s while
working full-time as a school teacher. Inspired by his
homelife, love of music, and the immensity of Australia’s
ancient landscape, Robinson’s stylistic shifts throughout
his career run parallel to changes in his location; the farmscapes
of his home in Birkdale on Quandamooka Country,
epic multi-perspective landscapes of and within the Gold
Coast Hinterland on Yugambeh/ Kombumerri Country,
his beachscapes at Kingscliff on Bundjalung Country, and
more recently, still-life works that he now paints living in
his suburban home in Meanjin.¹

Robinson’s Towards Tamborine features a multi-perspective
and panoramic view of the Gold Coast Hinterland, and
its dense and far-ranging rainforests that cover Mount
Tamborine. His rotating composition presents a view from
above, below, within, and out toward the horizon; where
multiple viewpoints and perspectives meet and merge as
one. Robinson’s skewed perspective is evocative of the
cyclic revolution of the earth, the ever-changing nature of
life on the planet, and our place within the greater cosmos.
The landscape unravels a deeply personal and almost
spiritual response to the environment – its complex geology,
botany and meteorology² and his immersion within it.

1. Queensland Art Gallery, “William Robinson: About the Artist,” accessed December 15 2020, http://www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/content/robinson_standard.asp?name=Robinson_About.
2. Hannah Fink, “Light Years: William Robinson and the Creation Story,” Artlink, published December 2001, https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/2555/light-yearswilliam-robinson-and-the-creation-stor/.