In the context of this artwork, discuss the Use of Light of the Description.
The painting is acclaimed for its use of light and the interaction of the sun with the landscape and the trees which cover the drover and his sheep. It has been described as "Heysen’s most successful use of light in all his eucalyptus paintings in oil." Heysen's use of oil paints allow for a stark contrast between the light bathing the verdant landscape in the background and the shadowed behinds of the trees facing the sun. These fissures of light between the shadows of the trees from the bright sun in the distance are what gives the viewer a sense of being on a journey with the drover, his sheep, and sheepdog, creating a "complex play of dynamic compositional elements which rescue it from potential banality" as described by Tracy Lock-Weir for the painting's exhibition in the National Gallery of Australia. An identifying motif of Heysen's work and one which is salient in Droving into the Light, the eponymous light inspires and shapes Heysen's oeuvre and the emotion he endeavored to capture in his works: "It’s a great life to feel you can open your lungs, swing your arms and shout whenever you like on a hilltop flooded in sunshine…". Thus the painting serves as a culmination of Heysen's fascination with light, "the sun ... its light and warmth ... is my religion". This fascination wasborn on his return to Adelaide from Europe in 1903. Sailing in Gulf St Vincent off the southern coast of Australia, he reported that Australian light "was like a slap in the face"; profoundly changing his attitude towards art and the vision he had for his future compositions.
National Gallery of Australia drover Gulf St Vincent Adelaide