As the grand-daughter of a Koo-We-Rup East Iona pioneer, my mother Hayden Ritson (Kavanagh) inherited all sorts of land around Iona. In the late 1950s, my parents decided to build a brand new house in the modern style. It would be right next door to the Iona Post Office. They called it “Carlowrie” after theContinue reading “Iona House Beginnings”
Author Archives: juliaritson1
Kavanagh and Featherstone
My great-grandparents, Owen Kavanagh and Catherine Featherstone, were early pioneers of Iona.
Swampland
I’ve always had a uneasy relationship with Australian land.
Fitzpatrick’s Drouin
Photographer Jim Fitzpatrick was an official war photographer for the Australian Information Service.
Drouin Drinkers
I spent my early years in Gippsland. The Swamp District.
Lina Bryans Richmond
Lina Bryans met a lovely architect Alex Jelinek in the 1950s and found a really large house at 39 Erin Street, Richmond.
Lina Bryans’ Pink Colony
Artists’ Colonies seem a particularly Melbourne thing in the early part of the 20th century. A dog bite was responsible for Bryans’ Colony. Lina Bryans knocked on the door of Ada May Plante (a painter friend of Jock Frater) for some help and the reclusive artist offered Lina a room to stay for the night whichContinue reading “Lina Bryans’ Pink Colony”
Young Lina Bryans
Lina Bryans was born in Europe but her parents were Australian. Bryans was a Hallenstein whose family had made their money from a successful tannery and leather business in Melbourne. Her maternal great-grandfather, Sir Benjamin Benjamin, had been Lord Mayor of Melbourne in the 1880s. The family moved from St Kilda to South Yarra in theContinue reading “Young Lina Bryans”
Music of Lina Bryans
In memory of Brian Finemore, Lina Bryans gave one of her major late works, Landscape Quartet, to the National Gallery of Victoria. | Lina Bryans, Landscape Quartet, 1971, oil on canvasboard (4 panels) | What an amazing painting. And finally her last two paintings. Softly swirling pale landscape. | Lina Bryans, Cooper Meander, 1971, oil on canvas onContinue reading “Music of Lina Bryans”
Lina Bryans You-Beaut
Around the same time Lina Bryans was changing direction, there was a new generation of young curators on the scene in the Australian art world.
Independent Lina Bryans
Independent painter Lina Bryans was known for her portraits.
Eveline Syme
Modernist Eveline Syme also attended the George Bell school in Toorak, Melbourne.
Mary Cecil Allen
Melbourne born Mary Cecil Allen was a very well known artist and educator from the 1930s who after her death was another one of those ladies sidelined by art historians.
Frances Burke
Many students passed through George Bell’s art school.
Dancing and Painting
George Johnston was very positive about the state of the arts in Australia in 1966.
Football and Lifesaving
There is a big section in George Johnston and Robert Goodman’s The Australians on sport. The Sporting Life.
Hyde Park and Opera
Another chapter in The Australians by Robert Goodman and George Johnston is The Cities.
Fitzroy River and Judith Wright
In The Australians, published by Rigby Limited in 1966, Robert Goodman and George Johnston’s first chapter concerns The Land.
Robert Goodman and George Johnston
In 1962 an American photographer, Robert Goodman, conceived of an idea to produce a picture book on Australia.
Warm Australia
This ad still works 40 years later.
Far Away Australia
How about visiting the Ross River cattle station? A billy tea and damper picnic near the historic homestead.
Australian Sheilas
Ok. Well I like parrots.
Australian Ruins
Another Helvetica driven poster for the Australian Tourist Commission.
Australian Type
I’ve always liked typography.
Graphic Eric Thake
So there is Eric Thake working away at Paton’s Advertising Agency in Melbourne. For 30 years.
Bookish Eric Thake
Most of the information I’ve collected about Eric Thake has come from the State Library of Victoria website.
Political Eric Thake
A couple more images from the National Gallery of Australia book Printed images by Australian artists 1885-1955.
Birdman Eric Thake
The one thing you notice when you start digging Eric Thake is his love of owls.
Early Eric Thake
The young sketcher, Eric Thake, was out and about Melbourne in the early 1920s.
Cool Eric Thake
Me again with artist portraits.
Light Eric Thake
Back to happier times for Eric Thake.
Dark Eric Thake
The National Gallery of Victoria has this lovely Eric Thake watercolour, pastel, and charcoal drawing in their collection.
Wartime Eric Thake
War gave Eric Thake the opportunity to travel.
Witty Eric Thake
Many Australian artists have taken to the outback.
Upper Middle Class Women
Progressive, unmarried, upper middle class women like Violet Teague and Una Teague were expected to get on with things.
Desert Ladies
As Violet and Una Teague get closer to Central Australia, Violet creates some stunning abstractions using the colours and shapes around her.
Outback Ladies
As Una and Violet Teague motored further into the outback, Violet continues to sketch.
Violet and Una Teague Set Off
In 1933, a year before Albert Namatjira met artist Rex Battarbee, the “can do” artist Violet Teague set out to visit Central Australia with her sister, Una.
Violet Teague 1872-1951
When I was reading about Albert Namatjira, I found Victorian artist Violet Teague had a close connection to him.
Namatjira’s Sorrow
Outlawed, outcast