On Visiting The Arthur Streeton Exhibition Poem by Francis Duggan

Arguably Australia's finest natural painter
His works are full of beauty and sunlight
For many years he struggled as an artist
But now his paintings a familiar sight.

Sunlight on wooded hills and shady valleys
He gave a new look to Australian art
The genius in him shone through in his paintings
And Arthur Streeton painted from the heart.

His marvellous paintings of the forest at Olinda
Before the huge messmates were cut away
Visual memories for future generations
Of how Sherbrooke looked in distant by gone day.

He captured the beauty of old Sherbrooke on his canvas
A beauty partly by pioneering man destroyed
But thanks to Arthur Streeton as well as others
That what has been has not yet fully died.

To Australian art he brought a new dimension
His paintings full of colour and sunlight
For years and years he struggled for acceptance
But now his works are a familiar sight