"Shoalhaven Rabbit, its fur still glistening, still seemingly lissom... it is already on its journey into a black void. Arthur had found the rabbit lying freshly shot. Rushing back to his studio he painted the subject while it was still warm. Delicate shading captures the tender interior of the rabbit's ears... the entire work was achieved by the smoothing and stroking of Arthur's hand and the patting of his fingers, as if he were not only comforting the rabbit in the hour of its death but reviving it."¹ In 1981 Arthur Boyd returned to Shoalhaven and began work on a series nature morte. Among these meditative works is The Stoat and Large Skate on Grey Background, all captured at the moment of dying but with a dignity and peace that highlights both the transience of life and equality in death.

1. Bungey, D., Arthur Boyd: A Life, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2007, p. 508