Re: amateur painters, Australia, etc.

Camille Scaysbrook (verona_beach@hotpop.com)
Fri, 29 Oct 1999 11:33:01 +1000 

Ed, I regret that I have picked some very obscure ones. Beckett, for
example, was only really rediscovered this year when a major exhibition was
mounted by a woman (who actually used to be married to Barry Humphries, aka
Dame Edna!) who had discovered almost all of her extant works in an old
shed, completely exposed to the elements; some had rotted through or been
eaten by rodents. It's heartbreaking when you see the ones that remain,
which are magnificent. Joy Hester is a little more well known - in fact she
was a member of the Angry Penguins that I was discussing with you just
before! Coincidentally, her ex-husband, a very fine artist and the last
living member of the Angry Penguins, died only a few days ago. However,
Jeffrey Smart is a man you should be able to find tons of information on, as
the Art Gallery of NSW has a major retrospective of his work on right now!
And please don't be too ashamed of your ignorance of Austrailan art - I'd
say about 8 out of 10 Australians wouldn't have heard of Joy Hester - and I
would be the first to admit that I know very little of Canada's art either.
Though I have a definite soft spot for their bands, especially The Pursuit
of Happiness (:

Camille

> --- Camille Scaysbrook <verona_beach@hotpop.com>
> wrote:
>
> 2) Jeffrey Smart (an Aussie)
>
> 6) Joy Hester (another Aussie)
>
> 7) Clarice Beckett (still another Aussie!)
>
> Camille,
>     I can only say that your inclusion of Australian
> painters is welcome!  I have not heard of them and
> will have to go and look them up.  Americans, and
> count me in on this unfortunately, (any other American
> Fishers who are versed in Australian arts/culture can
> differ with me) are terribly ignorant of arts/culture
> from down under - hell there's people up in Canada we
> don't even know about....some years ago a Canadian
> friend turned me on to Tom Thompson of "The Seven,"
> the Canadian impressionist painters - I enjoy his
> deeply hued paintings of flowers and nature.
> As far as Australian jazz musicians, there are a
> couple of guys whose names I should know, but are on
> the tip of my tongue instead, who recorded here in the
> '50's. However, from New Zealand (doesn't count does
> it?) there is the brilliant pianist/arranger Alan
> Broadbent. You might want to check him out.
>
> - Ed
>
> =====
>
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