Dimensions: 15x30cm
Painted: 2009
Materials: Acrylic on MDF board
Private collection
The story behind Old Yarra Glen railway station
Another painting from the 2009 Yarra Glen postcard series. The old railway station sits at the end of a line that last saw regular passenger service around 1980 — a shame, given how pleasant the Yarra Valley run must have been. By 2009 it had settled into quiet abandonment, the track weedy, a yellow maintenance vehicle parked on the siding, the timber station building still standing but with nothing much left to do.
The 2009 Black Saturday bushfires damaged the station badly. It has since been rebuilt and operates now as a tourist railway — semi-functional, preserved rather than truly alive, which is perhaps the best that can be hoped for.
Painted from a postcard, like the trestle bridge painting, the same discipline applies — reading through the compressed color of the printed source to reconstruct something closer to the original scene.
Source image of realism painting Old Yarra Glen railway station
