Welcome to the
The Homestead Gallery!
We have recently produced a very short film about the
origins of Jeff’s art, the lifting of the original homestead. In the
film, many of you will be able to identify the model of the house which
Jeff handcrafted over 10 years ago – it has during all these years been
displayed in our gallery.
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The
Homestead Gallery
 
 
The Story of The
Homestead
This series of paintings was Jeff’s first foray into his now
famous collection of paintings about buildings being carried
by hot air balloons across the world.
As we know, the idea came to Jeff on his way up Mt Tamborine,
but since those early days, the story has taken on a life of
its own.
I would like to quote from an article in the Gold Coast
Bulletin from 1997:
The journalist opens with:
“For an artist-writer saddled with the creative
responsibility of moulding a zany idea into a book, TV
series and feature film, Jeff Gilberthorpe is utterly and
delightfully vague…
…Certainly, the image of a flood threatened old Queenslander
and its dwellers being plucked from a marooned Canungra
Valley by a battery of balloons and then soaring free on a
round-the-world odyssey is compelling…
…The storyline and between 50-70 individual paintings will
follow the eight giant balloons and its tethered house
through a series of non-stop adventures embracing such
diverse but globally identifiable features and events as the
Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Melbourne Cup, Mt. Cook, Easter
Island and its forbidden historic statues, the Inca relics
of Machu Picchu and the obligatory lost tribe, the Golden
Gate, Grand Canyon, the St Patrick’s Day march down New
York’s 5th Avenue, the Pyramids, Eiffel Tower,
Colosseum, Acropolis and Tower of London…
…a story-line centred on a Canungra homestead built in the
Queensland style by Uncle Willy, the black-sheep son of
landed Yorkshire gentry…As the Gilberthorpe story
flows…Everywhere the balloons and house go, chaos erupts,
he says, warming to the theme. Most of the action involving
the family takes place in the air, with everyone, above and
at ground level, narrowly avoiding disaster and death as the
show floats on…”
Since those early days, the stories of the Homestead and the
Icon Collection seem to have merged and for over ten years
now, Jeff has been working on the challenging task of trying
to complete the journeys on canvas. Meanwhile, Kirsten and
Jeff have continued to develop the storylines of both
stories and will soon update on their progress in the News
and Events section.
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