Layered Symphony
My practice draws inspiration from the liminal space where hinterland, coast, and sea converge around the Hunter Valley and Newcastle. This landscape sings with layered rhythms—the rustle of bush flora, the call of birds, the deep pulse of migrating whales, and the mechanical churn of sailing ships and tankers. Using pianola paper, I explore this natural symphony through perforations, twists, and concertina folds, echoing the bush’s chorus in visual form. The Gymea lily stands tall in my work as a marker of resilience and presence, bridging land and sky. Like a score waiting to be played, the pianola rolls become a tactile language—mapping notations of memory, migration, and place. Each cut and fold reverberates with the musicality of the bush, translating sonic landscapes into visual rhythm. My work is an ongoing conversation between movement and stillness, nature and industry, presence and passage across this richly storied terrain.

Julianne Ross Allcorn is a Sydney based artist and art teacher whose work honors the vibrancy of Australia’s native bush. Born in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea in 1960 and relocating to Sydney at age ten, her deep affinity for flora and fauna took shape early. Over more than two decades, she has developed a disciplined practice grounded in sketching, journaling, and drawing directly from her garden studio in Roseville and the wondrous Burralong Valley, Lower Hunter.
Working mostly on birch wood panels, Allcorn etches with pencil and a small dremel before applying delicate watercolour washes, charcoal, acrylic and chalk pastel to evoke textured, layered landscapes that whisper with native wildlife presence. Her works encourage quiet contemplation: viewers are invited to pause, listen, smell, and sense the bush as if being immersed within it. Recognized as a finalist in the and Wynne Prizes 2020/21/22 in Archibald 2021 and awarded the AGNSW Trustees Watercolour Prize in 2020, her art bridges observation and poetic connection to place.