ROSS TOWNSEND
Beaches of Liberation
Oil
162 x 59cm
Whilst travelling in France last year, I visited the D-Day beaches in Normandy. On 6 June 1944, when the Allied forces landed at the five beaches on the coast of Normandy, was the largest military seaborne operation ever attempted and marked the start of an Allied campaign to liberate France and other Nazi-occupied countries throughout Europe. Our Australian military were involved in this campaign.
Standing on the beaches – Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword – imagining the horrific D-Day landing day, compared to what we saw in August 2025, was an incredibly solemn experience. I left feeling greatly inspired to capture each of the five beaches in a landscape painting. The horrific and brutal warfare that occurred on those beaches, is a huge contrast to the peaceful appearance of the beaches that I have depicted. I feel very privileged for the opportunity to have visited these beaches and now to portray them in art form from my own personal experience.
