Waller House

It's always so interesting to visit a house once occupied by artists. Waller House in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe is such a place. It's now in the hands of the National Trust which is a good thing to know because it's always difficult to preserve artists' residencies/studios so having Waller House in the hands of the National Trust is the closest one can get to having something important preserved.

Waller House is where Napier and Christian Waller spent a great deal of their life together. Their murals, mosaics and stained-glass artwork can be found in prominent buildings in Victoria, especially in Melbourne like the Melbourne Town Hall and the State Library of Victoria. 

For information about visiting Waller House click National Trust  

Napier Waller has mosaics on the facades of a number of buildings around Melbourne CBD, it's like an outdoor gallery. Sometimes it's difficult to notice them because the height of the trees can partially obscure the view. He was also a wonderful printmaker and draughtsman

As well as a muralist, Christian Waller was also a wonderful illustrator, and printmaker. She was in high demand and her stained-glass work can be found in over 20 churches in Victoria and New South Wales.

Here are some pics of their house and studio, so much of it like it was when the were living there.

The driveway to the welcoming sign

 

The main room to the house

Waller's self portrait drawing

Workroom where the glass was cut 

Napier Waller's drawing sitting by a table

Christian Waller's design for a stained-glass work

Tools and odds and ends

Another studio used by Napier for large scale mural work

A view from this studio

Christian's niece, Klytie Pate, came to live with the Wallers when Klytie's father died. She assisted around the studio but she eventually became a prominent ceramicist. 

A painting done by Napier on the wall of Klytie's bedroom.

The gardens were a beautiful addition to the house and studio. 

Volunteers now tend to tend to them with great pride.

Man at the Window

Man at the Window, 2026, oil on canvas, 61.25 x 25.25 cm

While I was painting a view of a hotel across the road from my apartment I had the idea of painting a fragment from that painting. The larger painting was composed of many windows so I decided on a  composition which honed at a window. I thought a tall canvas size would reflect the high-rise architecture of the building. The blue sign was extremely exaggerated as this was the image that formed in my mind. Perhaps it gives the image a slightly other-worldly atmosphere.  

 

Four Portraits of Bill

 

Bill, 1995, oil on canvas, 91 x 76 cm

Bill, 1996, oil on canvas, 61 x 50.5 cm

Bill Reid and I went to kindreds of life-drawing classes over the years and on occasions we used each other as models. It's difficult to be able to paint a human being from life these days unless you do a self-portrait, have a friend sit for you or receive a portrait commission. The problem is the amount of time needed to do a portrait. Painting a person from life is a great thing to achieve but for this to be possible you do need multiple sittings. Painting people from photographs seems to be the norm in many instances in our contemporary world but it often doesn't produce the type of image I admire. I've often thought if Rembrandt was painting today would he have painted from photographs? Perhaps he might have done but would his portraits have the same feel ? Perhaps not.

The Painter's Eye

 

Moonlight and Rain, 2021, oil on linen, 40.5 x 20.5 cm

This painting is in an exhibition at Nicholas Thompson Gallery titled The Painter's Eye. There are 14 artists and one of them is Kez Hughes who curated the show. It's good to be in an exhibition where painting is held in high regard. The almost obsession with machine made imagery in the art world is disappointing to say the least, so it's a relief in a way when the art of painting is allowed to balance that which is made by humans against that which is made by technology.

Hugh Magnus wrote an excellent essay to accompany the exhibition. His last paragraph says a lot and to quote him here - 

'These paintings share many things, but most of all it is their makers' utmost respect for the traditions and techniques of their craft that endows them with such lightness and beauty. Through bringing these works together, the monolith of an imagined, capital-P 'Painting' begins to crumble. Working in different styles, varying modes and motifs, the artists of The Painter's Eye apply their tools and logic to create lasting icons, persistent images whose power stretches well beyond the edges of their supports'.

The artists in this exhibition are - Xiao You Bai, Sis Cowie, Sarah Crowest, Alex Dillon, David Egan, Storm Gold, Kez Hughes, Natasha Col, Shane Jones, Madeleine Peters, Steven Rendall, Rachael Robb, Kristina Tsoulis-Reay and Kate Wallace.

The Wind Stirs the Water

 

The Wind Stirs the Water, 2025, oil on linen, 55.5 X 45.25 cm

This painting was inspired by a windy day. Water is such a beautiful medium that reflects the various colours sunlight sweeps across its surface, but the wind can disrupt this and affect the surface in a different way. I like the choppy and dark water stirred by the wind. Since wind is invisible, it's this movement that allows the eye to 'see' it in its various moods. 

From the Life Class

Over the years I've attended many life-drawing classes, but one of the biggest problems was the lack of long poses. Many artists wouldn't know what to do when a session resumed after the 20 minute break, so 20 minutes or shorter became almost standard lengths of time to draw a human being! Not always, but too much of the time this was the case. Consequently, these two small life paintings were done in a sculpture class, and over 5 afternoons with the same pose. There are now many Academies all over the world that embrace the study of the human figure over a sustained period of time. The quick sketch is a good thing to do but again, it's often mistakenly seen as capturing the essence of a figure and no more need be done to the drawing. But essence is the life of a drawing, not just the suggestion of a figure. If you wrote a story in short-hand it doesn't automatically mean you've captured the essence of anything. A great novelist captures the essences of the characters portrayed in the book because the author brings them to life. For me, the same applies to drawing and painting. Of course spending a long time on a pose doesn't mean you've caught the essence of the figure before you, because bad paintings can take just as long to do as excellent ones, but it's good to be able to draw or paint the figure over a long period of time as a challenge and to arrive at something more 'there'.

The paintings and drawings below were done over various periods of time. The first and second took 20 x 20 minute poses to paint. The third, fourth and fifth were done over 4 x 20 minutes of posing and the final drawings were 10 minutes. Various mediums and time periods bring different results of course, but it's good to practise them all 

oil on canvas

oil on linen

oil on paper

                                                                    dry pastel on paper

pencil on paper

ink on papere

ink on paper

Red Rising Sun

 In 1993, I painted a quick sketch of an early morning sunrise of a Paris street scene. The most magical thing about that morning was the red sun shining through a clearing mist. I've always wanted to do another, more thoughtful painting, of this idea. 

Caspar David Friedrich is an artist I admire. The work of his pictured here, and the idea of something appearing through a mist contrasted with a detailed foreground, was also something I wanted to paint one day.  

Sometimes when a see a tree, I get a feeling that it's watching me. It's such an uncanny feeling, but it doesn't happen with every tree. As I was driving along one day, I noticed the tree pictured here, and thought it would make a great painting. I returned to paint it as a silhouette against the sun, but something was holding me back. It was when I got back to the studio and thought about the progress of the picture that I thought it would be better to paint it as a tree in a mist with a red rising sun. At last all the ingredients presented themselves and 30 years later I finally painted a picture that had been at the back of my mind for decades.

Red Sun Rising, 2025, oil on canvas, 61 x 50.75 cm.

Oil sketch of a Paris street scene, 1993,

 oil on paper, 58.75 x 41.5 cm

Mist, 1807, oil on canvas, 34.5 x 52 cm

The tree that inspired the painting.

Selena

This painting of Selena is the second time I've painted a family member of my nephew and niece-in-law, Robbie and Sara Jones. It was a pleasure to paint her, even though it was based on a photograph. The problem with the photograph was that it distorted her face slightly, as if her picture was stuck around a ball. So I amended the image so that it felt right. 

I thought I would add the other portrait, painted of her older brother, Lorenzo, just to keep the family together.

 

Selena, 2025, oil on panel, 25.5 x 14.25 cm

Lorenzo, 2023, oil on panel

From England to Flemington - 20 years on from Makybe Diva's third Melbourne Cup

- Monday 3rd November 2025

ABC's Andrew McGarry spoke with me about horse racing and my painting of Makybe Diva.

'Like a spaceship landed at the MCG': The artist's view.

It wasn't just the racing world or the general public that was taken by the Diva's third Cup win.

Shane Jones is a Ballarat/Melbourne based artist - but he has had a love of horses all his life. He remembers walking with his brother as a young child up tp the stables of Hall pf Fame trainer Jim Moloney, where he later became an apprentice jockey.

'Visually, racing is stunning, because you've got everything - you've got the human figure, the horse form, the colours, you've got the landscape, all genres in one', Jones says.

Makybe Diva Winning Her Third Melbourne Cup, 2010, oil on canvas, 76 x 91 cm

Shane Jones loved horses from his earliest years, as an artist later in life he was drawn to put Makybe Diva's third Cup win on canvas.

His vivid oil painting, Makybe Diva Winning Her Third Melbourne Cup, captures the finish of that win, surrounded by a TV screen with a pause button in the corner as if someone was watching a video of the race.

The Diva is captured in full flight muscles working in perfect unison as she passes the line.

'I always watched the Melbourne cup, I was aware of her (Makybe Diva) from the start. To win three - I mean, if she only won two, I probably wouldn't have painted her', Jones says.

But three, that's off this planet, really - it was pretty amazing'.

Jones says the Melbourne Cup is special - both for the history and the hype.

'It's a handicap race, so the best don't necessarily win - in weight for ages races (like the Cox Plate) often the best do win, because it's level pegging', he says.

'But the Melbourne Cup's a bit like the Stawell Gift ... the best get handicapped to bring them back to the field'.

He was emotionally invested in the third win, but when did he decide to paint her?

'Afterwards, it was such a unique thing - it was almost like if a spaceship landed at the MCG, you be in awe ... that's like Makybe Diva winning her third Melbourne Cup', he says.

'It was this out-of-world-experience. I can't see any horse doing it again, because everything has to go right over three years'.

'It did for her. Phar Lap probably could have done it, but his first one he got badly ridden by the jockey, and the third one was weighted out of it ... Peter Pan (a two-time winner in the 30s) could have probably won three but he had shoulder trouble - but could have won three is not the same as actually doing it'

The painting is now held at the State Library of Victoria

Read the article here: HERE

 

Bryan Brown in Conversation

It was a privilege to be at Ballarat's Palace Regent cinema last night to hear Bryan Brown in conversation with Renee Price, representing Collins Booksellers. The main reason the event was on was to launch Bryan's latest novel titled The Hidden and to sell his other books, The Drowning and Jimmy Sweet.

But he talked about is early years, his upbringing by his mother and how he got into acting in the first place, acting in the theatre and in film. Acting is all about story telling and all these experiences fuelled his desire to eventually write his own books and invent his own stories. Even though he told us he was 78 years old, writing is a relatively new direction in his life. 

It was such a pleasure to have a brief chat with Bryan as he signed our two books, The Hidden and Jimmy Sweet. I'm looking forward to reading all of them. Deborah had already bought The Drowning which explains the two books purchased.

Bryan is such an engaging speaker, and I'm sure the entire audience, which was in the hundreds, would have stayed all night to listen to him tell us about his experiences and the people he has met. But he spoke with an energy that bought his words to life and engaged the attention of the audience.

 

Bryan and Renee

Bryan, Deborah Klein and myself

Letting us know about the event 

Collins Booksellers' window and Bryan's three books.

Photo credits - 

Deborah Klein, pics 1,2,5 and 6

Pics 3 and 4. Unknown photographer but she took the photo of everyone who purchased a book

Bedside Lamp

Bedside Lamp, 2025, oil on canvas, 92 x 51.25 cm

 

I've always responded to paintings that have a sense of privacy, intimacy or secrecy. This painting is mainly about the light from the lamp, but because it's a bedroom setting (the white sheets of the bed are barely visible at the bottom left) it might suggest an atmosphere of privacy and intimacy. Hopefully there is a sense that such a fragment of a room can suggest an entire room in one's mind.

Perhaps you could say there is a Japanese formality about the composition with its geometrical structure. I've always liked that aspect of Japanese design. 

Distant

Distant, 2025, oil on linen, 40.5 x 50.75 cm

 

The Tao Te Ching (Way of Life), by Lao Tzu, is a book of short stanzas touching on the nature of God. 

The lines in some of the paragraphs have resonance for me because it's these qualities that should exist in art, qualities that transcend subject matter. Every painting and drawing I do I try to capture even a little of what Lao Tzu described.  Here are 2 examples.

Stanza 4, paragraph 1 - 

The way is void

Used but never filled

An Abyss it is,

Like an ancestor 

From which all things come

Stanza 14, paragraph 2 - 

...

It stretches far back

To that nameless estate

Which existed before the creation 

All Things Must Pass

 

All Things Must Pass, oil on canvas, 73.75 x 61 cm

Occasionally I make realistic paintings that are not about what we see but about an idea that applies to the world we see. I tried to paint the candle so that it sits lightly in the hand, suggesting the ephemeral nature of existence. 

I wouldn't call it a surrealist painting because this image could exist naturally. For me, surrealism is going to a personal space that doesn't behave in the same way as the real world we share.

Drawings in oil paint

I've always admired the drawings of Holbein, Hockney and Degas. These drawings were done in thinned oil paint on oil sketch paper. I like the technique where the head and hands are drawn in light and shade and the body rendered in a more linear style. I used the oil wash technique in many life classes years ago, inspired by Degas' essence (thinned oil paint) drawings. 

 

Heritage Week in Ballarat

Ballarat has a HERITAGE WEEK every year in early May. Some friends of Deborah and I, Bryan Putt and Megan Finlayson, celebrate the birthday of Queen Victoria during Heritage week. There is a statue of the Queen in the centre of Sturt Street and it acts has a gathering point for a group of us to raise a glass of tea (with a little something else) in honour of the Queen. None of us really care too much about royalty but it's an occasion to dress up and walk around the streets of Ballarat to add to the festivities on a Heritage day. We call ourselves 'Promenaders', and although at first I didn't really appreciate dressing up, I've developed an enthusiasm for it and I'm looking forward to next year's HERITAGE WEEK

Deborah looking very stylish indeed!

Me looking like a squire from an English village.

Megan as Queen Victoria

At the Queen Victoria Statue

King Louis IV and Jane Austen eras were also promenading!

A shoe shine! why not!

Quite a gathering at the OLD COLLONIST CLUB

At the Ballarat Train Station alongside a steam train.

Ending the day with a refreshment with Bryan and Megan 

at the Ballarat Train Station Cafe