"We admire realistic pictures of objects more than the original" - Blaise Pascal (1623–1662)
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Abandoned Timber Homestead in Australian Outback (The Orange Gate)

The paintings the artist was doing at this time were normally the result of pencil sketches done in-situ of different elements which then would be incorporated into the finished composition. The 'Orange Gate' when completed was exhibited in his Sydney exhibition. Subsequently Matthew Moss undertook various changes and revisions to the canvas until it assumed the appearance it has today. The Orange Gate is an abandoned timber homestead in the Australian outback with its corrugated iron roof, its brick-built external chimney and rainwater tank. (Because the abundance of available space in the Australian bush at the juncture of the nineteenth and twentieth century it was more practical for a squatter to walk away from the old home and start to build again something more suitable somewhere else in the vicinity). In the painting the artist shows his interest in the use of the vertical and horizontal lines of the subject to create movement in the composition. The artist was using then a very softly and absorbent priming on his canvas making the application of pigments a difficult feat, but it produced a particular richness in the colours and a wide gamut of tints.

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