early years
My Interest Schooldays University
Early years
my amateur 'career' – In painting In oils In acrylics In watercolors
My amateur ‘career’ in painting, and certainly my interest in art history, began as a child in Penguin, Tasmania. We had an apartment attached to an aged care home, where one resident was an old eccentric (red beret, bare feet, locks and belts on his door to keep out wandering aged care patients) man whose studio/room was filled with paintings, pastels, of outstanding quality.
Charles E Ritchie took a liking to me, as I would sit and watch him paint, asking questions and showing a real interest. He would praise my childish attempts (like a painting of ‘bird rock in the moonlight’ I was very proud of) and encouraged me to keep on painting and drawing. When my Dad was killed in a timber accident (1946, when I was ten) he paid off my mother’s rent and gave me a 10 shilling note to be kept for my future education.
Many years later, when I started writing my ‘Art for the Country’ book, I discovered that he was one of the famous Australian Impressionist School, a friend of Tom Roberts, Streeton, et al and had been with them in London at their first o’seas exhibition. But when he died (years after we left Tasmania) his family had no idea how famous he was and dumped all the artworks from his studio in the local tip. I was horrified. Some of his works (mainly pastel portraits) still hang in galleries such as Launceston.
Early – Schooldays Paintings Drawings Warrnambool
I kept on doing a bit of painting, as did my sister Gwen and brother Jim, and I took Art as an extra (sixth) subject in my matriculation year. But the art teacher at W’bool High had never used oils, only watercolours,so I had to experiment, using near-empty tubes of oil paint my sister Gwen had for her photograph colouring job. I had only a couple of brushes that were suitable for oils, and no canvases, so painted on the textured side of Masonite sheets, primed with white paint.
The Grafton Rd picture is of the road we walked to primary school every day, out near the W’bool Horse Racing Club.
The oil on board of the bridge at W’bool Botanical Gardens was done in my Matriculation year. This, and the oil of the Hopkins River mouth, was donated to the W’bool Historical Society. Most of my art work for that year was submitted as part of the exam. So I have no record of them, but when I started uni. I was surprised to see one of my landscapes hanging in the main stairwell of the Melbourne Teachers’ College (corner of Swanston and Grattan Sts), no idea what happened to it later.
my hobby
Hobby Paintings Philip Island Abstract Fruit Bowl Umbrellas in the wind Abstract Carlton Houses
While at university, I did a few paintings, one of which (Carlton houses) was hung in the Georges Gallery ‘Country Art’ exhibition.
Once I was married , living In Greensborough, I had a good work bench in the garage and turned out an occasional painting–
- Philip island where we holidayed with the kids
- Fruit bowl, done when Ian O’Connor and I compared paintings
- Umbrellas in wind – actually an interpretation of an Israeli painting, but in my style.
My daughters Sue, Lesley and I painted big murals of figures on the wall of our garage, near the cubby house (previously full of spiders) that they enjoyed with local friends.
