Swanston St
From the series Melbourne, In My Eyes
Oil on canvas, 9 x 13 cm
 
Swanston St is part of David Chen’s intimate series Melbourne, In My Eyes, a collection of small-scale works painted on 9 x 13 cm canvases—the size of vintage cigar box lids. In this series, David revisits the spiritual legacy of Australia’s early landscape painting tradition, drawing inspiration from the plein air practices of the 19th and early 20th centuries, especially the expressive brushwork and luminous light of the Heidelberg School.
 
Set against the backdrop of modern Melbourne—its glimmering skyscrapers, sunlit roads, sea spray, and shifting sand—David reflects on the original impulse behind painting:
 
“I am not painting landscapes; I am remembering how my eyes see the world.”
 
To him, Melbourne is a delicate interplay of light, shadow, fog, people, and air. These twenty poetic miniatures form not a landscape series, but a visual diary—capturing the city brick by brick, breath by breath—and quietly asking: Are today’s artists still willing to slow down and truly see their cities, their time?