Based in Townsville, Ron McBurnie is one of Australia's leading contemporary printmakers. The predominant theme of McBurnie's art is the life and lifestyle of far north Queensland which he interprets with a good deal of humour and parody.

Ron McBurnie's etchings exude a quintessential Queensland-ness, in their appearance and ideas. McBurnie was born in Brisbane and has lived in Townsville for about 25 years. His often-humorous work oozes urbanity. McBurnie's compositions are regularly occupied with Queenslanders (both the houses and the people) and the various animals that so often accompany them. Dogs feature regularly, be they as spectators or allegorical primary subjects.

The QUT Art Collection holds 24 of McBurnie's works, 18 of which are on display. The earliest piece is the 1979 lithograph When we went fishing, a youthful print created when the artist was studying teaching at what is now QUT's Kelvin Grove campus.

St Anthony giving all of his food to the rats (1981) is one of his first examples of the use of biblical allegory to underline the daily struggles and events of human life. Religious metaphor is highlighted in All night long he struggled with his hose (1992), which was inspired by the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel.

McBurnie's connection to Samuel Palmer (often via William Hogarth) is also apparent. In the late 1980s McBurnie began an ongoing homage to Palmer, through etchings of great detail and tone, controlled entirely through chiaroscuro. A mower's progress (1989) is an early example and Palmer's influence is evident in the exhibition's most recent work The lines are drawn (2006).

Also included are several examples from McBurnie's The Artist's Studio series. This body of work has been a major focus of the artist's work since 2000 and was the subject of a Cairns Regional Gallery Touring Exhibition of the same name that the QUT Art Museum hosted in the summer of 2003-04. The series depicts artists at work in their private domain/sanctuary of the studio through large, multi-plate etchings.