Woolshed Series

Flower Series | Mining Series | Serbia Exhibition 2011

Peter Schell - Woolshed SeriesWoolsheds are strongly part of our vernacular architecture, white settlement and man’s intervention in the natural cycles of life and death.

Undressed or discarded materials such as wood, tin, or corrugated iron are used to express simple shapes in the structure of the building as well as in the attractive stencils and magnificent old wool presses. A coating of dust, lanolin, wool grease and excreta covers everything.

Architecturally woolsheds are truly ‘Modern’ buildings. Devoid of ornament, the bare and efficient beauty of these structures is conceived in terms of volume not mass. The layout or plan of all woolsheds shares many of the essential forms or features of a cathedral or temple. As to the process of shearing, there is an element of the sacrificial ritual in the way the shearer at the board removes the wool, the protective coating from the silent, unquestioning sheep.

The unique Australian sunlight and its effect on the sense of space within and without the woolshed is intriguing for an artist as it works to charm us with its fascinating images and shapes.