With a career spanning more than seven decades, John Olsen transformed the way Australians experience the landscape. His influential journeys to Africa in 1978 and again in 1989 extended his singular visual language beyond Australia, yet remained deeply connected to his lifelong celebration of nature’s vitality. Olsen’s giraffe paintings are not studies of exotic animals, but poetic meditations on movement, rhythm and interconnectedness. Emerging through transparent washes and instinctive marks, the giraffes arise from nature, becoming extensions of its rhythms and energies—embodying Olsen’s belief that paintings should evoke the essence of experience rather than simply depict appearances.

Giraffes and hot air balloon reveals nature as a living theatre of movement and delight, where animal, landscape and observation exist in a continual state of harmony.

John Olsen received numerous prestigious accolades over his lifetime, including the Wynne Prize twice (1969, 1985), the Sulman Prize in 1989, and the Archibald Prize in 2005 with his self-portrait Self-portrait Janus Faced. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2001 and made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1977. Olsen's work is represented in all Australian state gallery collections, the National Gallery and regional galleries Australia-wide.