Art, and especially great art, is not made in isolation. Societal needs, environmental input, and personal experience all combine to create an expression of emotion that is uniquely human, and therefore relatable to all. Artist John Coburn (1925-2006) spent his early years around Ingham, Queensland, before joining the Australian Navy at seventeen. During this time, […]
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 […]
On a wall in her studio, Jenny Sages (1933-) has written the phrase ‘OLD LADIES CAN DOOIT.’ Though the extra O was a charming mistake, it is a message that resonates throughout Sages’ prolific career as a portraitist and abstract painter. Born in 1933, she spent most of her life as a fashion illustrator before […]
While he was alive, Robert Klippel (1920-2001) lived in a nest of curious items. Each of the twenty-six rooms in his house were filled with scrap metal, wood, and junk. The materials he found were sorted and placed in separate rooms so that he could live each day assembling objects out of the various shapes […]
This trophy was awarded to Swansea-Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club members who won marathon boat races between 1966 and 1968. The club, now known as Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club, has a proud history in this gruelling and demanding surf sport category. In the mid-1900s, marathon surfboat races were considered an ultimate test […]
Posing for this photograph one day in the 1970s, the senior surf boat crew of the Caves Beach Surf Lifesaving Club were wearing their Speedo swimming briefs – a far cry from the heavy woollen bathers worn in earlier decades. Still, the club’s signature colours of maroon and white remained. They had much to celebrate […]
In late March 1947, a young Ken Ross (at the far left of this photograph) stood proud with his lifesaver mates in front of their winning surf boat. These were the Caves Beach boys who had taken out the Junior Surf Boat Championship at the recent Surf Lifesaving Australia Carnival at Bondi Beach. It was […]
As these men posed on Caves Beach, on the peninsula between Lake Macquarie and the Pacific Ocean, it’s tempting to imagine that the photographer might have yelled out a request such as, ‘C’mon boys, smile for the camera!’. The two jovial lifesavers at the left responded, but the three men on the right just squinted […]
The changing face of surf life saving is, in no small part, due to the ever-evolving inclusion of juniors. This pennant was won by the junior boat crew of Caves Beach Surf Life Saving Club (SLSC) at a 1961 surf life saving carnival. This competition was held by their ‘sister club,’ Swansea-Belmont SLSC, with both […]
Ken Murray, the Sweep, stood well balanced at the stern, steering the boat, while his crewmates braced themselves as they battled the breakers, amid foaming surf and salty spray. The senior boat crew from Caves Beach Lifesaving Club were all smiles that day in 1961 when a photographer perched at the surf boat’s bow to […]
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