William & Shirley Robinson gaze back at us from their Gold Coast Hinterland property

Mon 1 Jun 2026

On 6 June, we celebrate Queensland Day (the day the state separated from New South Wales in 1859), so this is the perfect opportunity to take a closer look at William Robinson's (1936–2025) painting William and Shirley, flora and fauna 1985 currently on display in the Australian Art Collection at the Queensland Art Gallery.

Robinson was presented with a 'Queensland Greats' award in 2004, Margaret Olley (1923-2011) in 2006, Robert MacPherson (1937-2021) in 2015, & Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda Sally Gabori (b.c.1924-2015) in 2022, the award presented to coincide with Queensland Day celebrations.

William Robinson

William Robinson was born in Brisbane, he brought a dynamic and unique approach to painting the landscape that was often unconstrained by the ‘rules’ of realism and perspective. Best known for his monumental paintings that explore nature as a powerful emotional force, Williams also painted lighter moments of joy, whimsy and humour, often inspired by the time he spent with his wife, Shirley Robinson (1936–2022) who occasionally appeared in his paintings.

Robinson has always drawn on elements from his immediate surroundings for his subject matter. Throughout his artistic career, his stylistic development has correlated with shifts from one home environment to another. From his farm at Birkdale, on the outskirts of Brisbane to the Gold Coast hinterland rainforest, to the beachside town of Kingscliff, or his home in the Brisbane suburbs near Moreton Bay, Robinson has continued to depict his own 'backyard'.

William Robinson William and Shirley, flora and fauna (and details) 1985

The painting William and Shirley, flora and fauna shows their life together at their 80-hectare property at Beechmont in the Gold Coast Hinterland, some 100 km south of Brisbane, where they moved after leaving Birkdale. Here we see the couple seated on a fallen log in a lush eucalypt and subtropical landscape, among the grass tree, an iconic Australian plant, together with a mob of Kangaroos, a Carpet Python, and Major Skink, and various species of native birds: Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, Australian Magpie, Sacred Kingfisher, and Whistling Kite.

In the Gold Coast Hinterland, Robinson's work underwent a natural transition from paintings and drawings of the farmyard to depictions of his experience of the vast, wild, rolling terrain and diverse fauna and flora. He began to work on a larger scale, exploring the landscape as a powerful emotional force. Robinson has commented about this period in his work:

This landscape was very elusive to me… I tried to describe the feeling of being in the landscape and walking around in it — climbing grassy hills looking up through the gum trees to the sky, and down steep cliffs to the valley below… encountering dingoes, snakes, kangaroos, birds ... To look up and down almost at the same time; to have a feeling of time; the beginning and movement of the day and night, and be aware of the revolving planet may be revealed in the same work. I did not paint these works as a visitor to the landscape, but as one who lived in it and experienced it every day.

William Robinson Four seasons (panel 1) 1987

In William and Shirley, flora and fauna, the Robinson's gaze steadily back at us, they seem in the landscape but not of it. Their position in the painting recalls Thomas Gainsborough's celebrated painting Mr and Mrs Andrews c.1750 (National Gallery of Art, London), where the couple proclaimed the proprietorship of the English gentry over their domains. William and Shirley bear witness to their Beechmont property in the traditional way, however they share its title with the forest and animals.

William Robinson William and Shirley, flora and fauna (detail) 1985

Thomas Gainsborough Mr and Mrs Andrews c.1750

Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA)
Brisbane, Australia