Earthly Delights: A Canberra Art Adventure
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As you step into this intimate boutique gallery and you’re immediately greeted by an unrestrained, fantastical three-panel spectacle—an artful romp presided over by the steely gaze of a South Coast silver gull. It feels like something plucked straight from a dream—or perhaps conjured from the imagination of Hieronymus Bosch himself—yet it’s unfolding right here in Canberra this October.
Earthly Delights, a bold new exhibition opening at Barton’s boutique ArtBox Gallery, invites Canberrans to step into landscapes that are at once familiar and fantastical, grounded and otherworldly. The centrepiece? A dramatic, two-metre triptych inspired by Bosch’s legendary Garden of Earthly Delights, reimagined for our time and our place.
Created in collaboration by local artists Rodney Moss and Ross Andrews, this contemporary take on Bosch’s masterpiece is a conversation between two friends and two approaches to artmaking. Both are deeply rooted in the natural world, yet each brings a distinct lens and style.
Rodney Moss.
From the Norwegian Fjords to forests to familiar bushland of Canberra and the Coast
Rodney Moss—yes, my brother, and yet another artistic force in my talented family of creatives—brings his own distinct vision to this exhibition. An architect by profession, Rodney has recently returned from Europe with sketchbooks brimming with spontaneous impressions: windswept fjords, hidden coves, and tin mines slowly reclaimed by nature. His paintings are light and gestural, alive with movement and imagination. More than landscapes, they are emotional responses—windows into places where the natural and spiritual worlds gently intertwine.
Ross Andrews.
Closer to home, Ross Andrews draws inspiration from the ACT, the Coast and the Mountains. Ross is a frequent exhibitor at group and solo exhibitions at the M16 Artspace galleries in Griffith. He is a former science and parliamentary journalist and paints for the emotional pull of colour and the resilience of landscapes. His works, brushed onto floating aluminium panels, celebrate the secret corners and surprising beauty of places many of us know, but few have truly seen.
Together, their works create a rich tapestry of place—at once near and far, both comfortingly familiar and startlingly unexpected.
More than an exhibition
But Earthly Delights isn’t just about standing back and looking at paintings. On Saturday 25 October, visitors can experience a unique performance pairing: a Shakuhachi bamboo flute recital by Rupert Summerson alongside Landscape Tankas by poet Ailsa Brown. The combination of sound, words and art promises to be a meditative highlight of the exhibition, offering a moment to slow down and see (and hear) landscapes in a new way.
Barton ArtBox – A local gem
Set at the rear of 7 Young Street, Barton, near Telopea Park, Barton ArtBox is itself a delight—a small, intimate space that invites close encounters with art. The exhibition is open to the public across two weekends only: 18–19 October and 25–26 October, from 2.30 pm to 6 pm.
For anyone who loves Canberra’s unique blend of urban and natural worlds—or who simply wants to spend a spring afternoon soaking up creativity—this is an event not to be missed. It’s a chance to see how two local artists interpret the places we walk, swim, picnic and daydream in, refracting them through imagination into something both deeply personal and universally resonant.
So, whether you come for the art, the music, the poetry, or simply the joy of discovering something new in the heart of Barton, Earthly Delights promises to live up to its name.
