Tuscan dreams

At the mention of the word Tuscany, almost immediately images of rich blue skies, open green fields, dramatic hills and rich vineyards come to mind.

With those romantic visions so fed into the popular culture through movies and coffee table books, artist Peter Reddy decided to do his own take on the vision of the Tuscan dream.

In a series of 12 photographic images in the show, La Toscana -“ A Daydream Of Tuscany, Reddy shows the iconic images which have made Tuscany famous around the world.

The only difference between Reddy and many other artists who have captured Tuscany in all its glories is that Reddy has never actually visited the lush Italian countryside.

This work is all about the romantic view people have of Tuscany. Everyone has it, so the things you will see in the show don’t really exist, but this is what you would imagine Tuscany to be like, he says from his home studio on the Central Coast beaches.

I went through about 150,000 photographs of Tuscany and kept seeing things like cypress-pines and the rough hills, and so I was seeing the elements of Tuscany that other people had been inspired by.

The images in the exhibition have been created through a visual montage of photographs that Reddy has put together to make up the iconic Tuscan images.

Some of the trees I have photographed elsewhere, and I have taken a hillside from somewhere else and a background from another place, and then I digitally paint in as well, Reddy explains. So the images are photographically based but they are not photographs any more.

Reddy’s work is on show not only at the Arthouse, but also through mobile phone company Mobux, where images can be downloaded onto phones and used as screensavers.

La Toscana -“ A Daydream Of Tuscany is on show from 16 April at the Arthouse Hotel, 275 Pitt St, Sydney. Mobux is at www.mobux.com.au.