Merredin Paintings 1966 to 1970
In 1965 at age twelve I saw a small set of oil paints in the window of the local news agency in Merredin. I begged my parents to buy them for me which they did on the strict condition that I had to buy all ongoing art materials from own money that I had to earn. I could not afford stretched canvasses so I painted on oil paper. I was banned from painting during the week as my Father was concerned that making art would interfere with my schoolwork. I began developing ideas during the week so I was fully prepared for a weekend of painting. Experimenting with my own ideas and trying to copy Masters from books with varying success was the way I learnt to paint. Picasso’s cubist paintings and the paintings of Salvador Dali’s were early influences.
I am grateful for the strong encouragement from my friends, school teachers and adult artists in Merredin. My secondary school art teacher Kerry Walker encouraged me to continue to follow my own path. This led to me winning some local art awards and receiving equal top marks for Art in the Leaving Certificate in Western Australia in 1970. Most of these paintings are from the folio of work I submitted for Art in the Leaving Certificate exams in late 1970.
In The Shadow of War
My family was one of many Western Australian families where the husband and father was traumatised by World War 2. My Father Raymond endured years of brutality as a prisoner of the Japanese. After the war ended, like other returned soldiers my Father was told not to talk about the war and to just get on with civilian life. The trauma of World War 2 was like a dark cloud that hung over my family that was hardly ever mentioned but somehow always there. It had a devastating effect on men like my Father - so profound that the man my Mother married before World War 2 was very different to the man she lived with after the War. It was women like my Mother that literally had to pick up the pieces of war and help her husband live a normal life. It was no easy task. During my childhood and youth new wars raged in Korea, the Middle East and Vietnam. In 1964 the conscripting of Australia’s young men for the Vietnam war began. My generation grew up knowing that one day we would have to register for National Service to fight in the Vietnam War. I was months away from having to register when in 1972 the Whitlam Labor Government ended conscription in Australia.
In 1965 at age twelve I saw a small set of oil paints in the window of the local news agency in Merredin. I begged my parents to buy them for me which they did on the strict condition that I had to buy all ongoing art materials from own money that I had to earn. I could not afford stretched canvasses so I painted on oil paper. I was banned from painting during the week as my Father was concerned that making art would interfere with my schoolwork. I began developing ideas during the week so I was fully prepared for a weekend of painting. Experimenting with my own ideas and trying to copy Masters from books with varying success was the way I learnt to paint. Picasso’s cubist paintings and the paintings of Salvador Dali’s were early influences.
I am grateful for the strong encouragement from my friends, school teachers and adult artists in Merredin. My secondary school art teacher Kerry Walker encouraged me to continue to follow my own path. This led to me winning some local art awards and receiving equal top marks for Art in the Leaving Certificate in Western Australia in 1970. Most of these paintings are from the folio of work I submitted for Art in the Leaving Certificate exams in late 1970.
In The Shadow of War
My family was one of many Western Australian families where the husband and father was traumatised by World War 2. My Father Raymond endured years of brutality as a prisoner of the Japanese. After the war ended, like other returned soldiers my Father was told not to talk about the war and to just get on with civilian life. The trauma of World War 2 was like a dark cloud that hung over my family that was hardly ever mentioned but somehow always there. It had a devastating effect on men like my Father - so profound that the man my Mother married before World War 2 was very different to the man she lived with after the War. It was women like my Mother that literally had to pick up the pieces of war and help her husband live a normal life. It was no easy task. During my childhood and youth new wars raged in Korea, the Middle East and Vietnam. In 1964 the conscripting of Australia’s young men for the Vietnam war began. My generation grew up knowing that one day we would have to register for National Service to fight in the Vietnam War. I was months away from having to register when in 1972 the Whitlam Labor Government ended conscription in Australia.
