After his sudden death in 1992, Brett Whiteley’s daughter Arkie remembered her artist father as a ‘generous, sweet intuitive man’ who would go to eternity wearing his ‘funny little turned up black hat with the frangipani brooch.’ The hat, now in the collection of the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, was his ‘good luck hat. He […]
Splotches of rich auburn resting on red earth, smears wandering in small patches of shade, and above all, heat. The only thing missing is the drone of flies above the steer’s head. Bullocks Resting by John Salvana (1873-1956) captures a pastoral image that has long captivated settlers in Australia. Pastoralist art presents country life, particularly […]
For many artists, creative practice whether written, painted, sculpted or otherwise, is about exploring and explaining the human condition – the things that make us human including, birth, death, emotions and existence. It can ask big and broad or sweeping questions, about life, the universe, and our place in it. It can also explore more […]
When the young Birmingham artist Arthur Henry Fullwood (1863-1930) arrived in Maitland in 1886, what were his first impressions? Having recently migrated to the colony, Fullwood was commissioned by the Picturesque Atlas Publishing Company in Sydney to travel to the Hunter Region and depict its principal town, Maitland. Among the various locations Fullwood visited in […]
Alfred William Eustace (1820-1907) was born in England and came to Australia with his wife Sarah and children in 1851. Among his paintings he recorded the first paddle steamer to arrive at Albury in 1855, as well as a painting of the Woolshed gold rush, one of only two known paintings of this gold field. […]
With razor blade in hand, working on a small section, the heritage painter carefully removed the outer layers of paint on a column in the chapel at Maitland Gaol. It was 2005, and Gordon Sauber, the Gaol Museum’s Coordinator was curious to identify the room’s original colour scheme. Built in 1867-8, the chapel remained in […]
When Max Watters (1934-2020) was drawn to the simple beauty of this setting, the cows that once grazed the grassy paddocks at the Merton dairy, near Denman in the Upper Hunter Valley, were long-gone. Max was a lifelong resident of Muswellbrook, a twenty-minute drive from Denman. He lived his entire life in a modest timber […]
Made in 1919, a gift of over 100 paintings and works on paper led to the establishment of Tamworth’s first public art gallery. Known collectively as the Salvana Collection these works were donated by Australian artist John Salvana (1873-1956). Principally a painter, Salvana was best known for his ‘bush scenes’ or impressionistic landscapes of rural […]
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