‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ (1979).
(oil on canvas, size 102cm x 72cm).
‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ (1979) is an iconic artwork by Robert Juniper, a major Western Australian artist, and was generously donated to the Parliament of Western Australia in November 2024 by the Friends of Perth Festival.
The artwork, which is oil on canvas, was used as the basis for the tapestry work, ‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ (1979) which has been part of the Parliament of Western Australia’s art collection since 1979, and the Parliament is honoured to have both pieces within its collection.
In 1979, Perth Festival Artistic Director David Blenkinsop (1976-1999) commenced a program of commissioning Australian artists to create a distinctive artwork suitable for the annual Perth festival poster and program cover. ‘A Ring of Grass trees’ was one of the two works submitted by Juniper as an option for the 1979 Perth Festival. Ultimately, ‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ was not used, and the Friends of Perth Festival (1976 – 2024) purchased the painting, as part of their support of the Perth Festival and the Western Australian arts community.
The 1979 Perth Festival also included an exhibition by the Victorian Tapestry Workshop (renamed the Australian Tapestry Workshop in 2010). The Friends of Perth Festival commissioned Robert Juniper design what would become the ‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ tapestry to commemorate the Perth Festival’s contribution to the state’s art community as part of the 150th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Western Australia. Measuring 2.7 x 1.47 m, the tapestry was woven by Sara Lindsay and Sue Carstairs and is displayed in Parliament behind glass. The tapestry was subsequently gifted to the Parliament of Western Australia by the Friends of Perth Festival on 20 July 1979.
The idea for Juniper’s original painting resulted from a photo taken using a fish-eye lens by Richard Woldendorp, when they were both on an outback bush trip in 1978.
‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ had previously been displayed in the Perth Festival Offices, and since 2016 the work has been stored at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia.
Robert Juniper (1929 – 2012) was born in Merredin and studied art in England. After returning to Australia in 1949, he worked as a commercial artist in Sydney and Perth. In 1967 he formed the Perth Group with other notable Western Australian artists Guy Grey-Smith, Brian McKay and Tom Gibbons. He twice won the Wynne Prize for landscape, and in 2011 was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia for service to the visual arts.
‘A Ring of Grass Trees’ (1979) featured in the foreground, with the tapestry 'A Ring of Grass Trees' (1979) pictured in the background.