Haughton Forrest painted Mount Wellington, the geographic
landmark that defines the city of Hobart, many times. He used
colour and scale to convey the inherent drama and atmospheric
‘moodiness’ of the Tasmanian landscape: luminous pinks and soft
cool greys, the glow of the afternoon winter light offsetting
the dark damp areas of forest. In Mount Wellington from Cascades
these colours suggest the air is cold and still, broken only by
the movement of birds. The scale of the mountain is also
accentuated by the small figures that stroll along the path
beside the river. Primarily a painter of maritime and landscape
subjects, French-born Forrest rarely dated his works. He often
used photography as a visual aid for his paintings, sometimes
referring to the work of James Watt Beattie who trekked into the
Tasmanian wilderness to photograph the spectacular natural
environment. These photographs assisted Forrest to portray a
level of detail in his own work and to create images of Tasmania
that were unfamiliar to the gen