art – JULIA RITSON

Serial Suprematist

Stef studying the subtleties of Nixon’s Black cross painted in 1992.

Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator

The first Shakespeare Penguin titles appeared in 1940. They were designed by the steadfast classicist Jan Tschichold. By the late 1960s the series was looking dated. Penguin was trying to be less literal and more cerebral, and designer Germano Facetti had the answer. In revamping the Bard’s work, Facetti commissioned David Gentleman to create an illustrationContinue reading “Shakespeare Gentleman Illustrator”

When Text is Enough

When the time came for Paul Auster’s Penguin books to be redesigned, he asked the art director to consider using a typographical rather than image based approach.

Atmospheric Content

“The pictorial idea, be it drawing, collage or photograph, will indicate the atmospheric content of the book.”

50 Shades of White

I’m noticing a trend in book design. Many shades of white.

Middlemarch Winter

“There is something in daubing a little one’s self, and having an idea of the process.”

Spooky Spirit

This little hoofed fellow is supposed to stop dead people coming out of their graves to interfere with the living.

Tree Goddess

A truly lovely tree goddess.

Alfred and Uma

Most of the fabulousness of the National Gallery of Victoria can be attributed to Mr Alfred Felton.

Grains for the Dead

If the spirit of the ancestor is happy and peaceful then they will look after the living. So best to feed them lots of grain.

Holding Art

Some lovely earthenware sculptures from the National Gallery of Victoria.

South Yarra Colours

Raw Umber

Ellsworth Kelly’s Facade

Shape, line and color in their purest forms.

Activating Surfaces

Looking and hiding.

Cézanne and Kelly

‘The most pleasurable thing in the world for me is to see something and then translate how I see it.’

Cézanne Seeing

When Ellsworth Kelly was a young boy, he put a print of this chesnut tree painting of Cezanne’s on his wall.

Sophie Tauber-Arp

‘The intrinsic decorative urge should not be eradicated, it is one of humankind’s deep-rooted, primordial urges.’

Godfrey Miller’s Counterpoint

‘Through the counterpoint of line and colour plane, the rhythmic themes and their inversions, we see the transmuted colour rhythms of the landscape shorn of superficiality.’

Godfrey Miller’s Counterspace

“If I had my time over again I would paint still life.”

Anchorite Godfrey Miller

From a vigorous, athletic boy to a reclusive painter.

Iona House Green

Iona House was surrounded by our busy dairy and potato farm.

Iona House Red and Blue

Iona House in all its glorious Kodak Instamatic colour

Iona House Features

In the black and white days of the Iona House at 2060 Main Drain Road, Iona, family and possessions were falling gently into place.

Iona House Family

I contacted architect John Davidson last week and he kindly corresponded with me about the “Carlowrie” house at Iona.

Iona House Beginnings

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”

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”