WienekeArchiveBook1

ft .11.1.111.1.111 jf NATURE IS AT HANS'S DOORSTEP Hans Heysen. famous Australian landscape painter, lives in the atmos- phere of rural beauty depicted' on his canvasses, said James Wieneke. Mr. Wieneke is director cupboards and canvasses. of the Moreton Galleries, Brisbane. During a recent air 'n to Sydney, Mel- bourne and Adelaide to procure paintings for via - play at the Moreton Galleries, he visited Hey- sen's home at Hahndort village, about 30 miles from Adelaide. Mr. Wieneke said: " Hans Heysen has a farm on which his home and studio are set on the long, gentle slope of a hill under mighty pines with a background of firs and gums, These, indeed, are the famous Heysen gums - noble trees. shedding bark from colourful trunks which grow along the water- courses and hillsides. " The studio, about 100 yards from the home, is a large, lofty building " Heyden. a smiling, grey-haired man in knickerbockers and pull- over. has a brisk step that belies his 76 years. "While we were talking in his studio, the walls of which are hung with studies and pictures, a magpie flew hard against the large glass window. "The bird had been tricked by the reflection of trees and sky." Forty -odd years ago Heysen decided to settle in this spot, and many of his pictures have been painted on his own pro- perty. He has an exceptionally! deep love and under -1 standing of the landscape and his blue eyes reflect his affection as he points nut interesting features in a picture-be it on the Murray. in the Hahndorf with an open fireplace hills or in the barren an dthe usual easels. Flinders Range. 'Fortunate man' Heysen looked so con- tented, healthy (despite a serious operation last year), and happy that Mr. Wieneke asked: "If you had your life over again, would you con- sider a different calling?" The artist said he certainly would not. because he considered himself a very fortun- ate man to be doing the work he loved. Mr. Wieneke con- tinued: "The ploughman, the sheep, the cows, the turkeys, the gums, the very earth itself - all these Subjects which have been painted with great feeling and sympathy are seen around the farm- house. "But one feels so fami- liar with them through the Heysen pictures that somehow it was all just as I had expected to see it. "It was easy to detect the painter's humility, sincerity and reverence toward nature-qualities so necessary in great landscape painting. "Heysen ran his hand rently over a new piece of white watercolour Paper and said, 'You know, the clean sheet Itself is so beautiful, I often hesitate to mark "Was he thinking that a vast amount of inno- cent. paper has been tor- tured by many with arrogance, nonsense and bluff tinder the heading of art? Somehow, I sus- pect he was." While in Adelaide, Mr. Wieneke visited also the studios of Ivor Hele (fin- ishing off work as official war artist in Korea( and Max Ragless. Robert Campbell, well- known in Brisbane and now Director of Adelaide Art Gallery, showed him the national collection. Mr. Wieneke said, "South Australia has a gallery to be proud of. It is a spacious build- ing, beautifully situated and enhanced by trees and lawns, housing a well -displayed, fine col- lection of work." In Sydney, Mr. Wien - eke said. Royal Art Society artists were com- pleting work for their an- nual show, and the Watercolour Institute dis- play was closing at David Jones's Gallery - now under the management of artist George Duncan. The Society of Artists' annual exhibition was in, progress at the Education Galleries. It was good to see the! paintings of Queenslander- Wilson Cooper ("Brisbane 8elegraph" cartoonist) ac- cepted for the institute, he added. Norma Heysen was busy packing pictures for the Brisbane exhibition now showing at the Moreton Galleries. In Melbourne. he saw John Loxton and Bill Gargle, preparing for their Brisbane shows, as well as Alan Bernaldo, Bill Sedon. Jorn Rowell and others. Dividend lift MELBOURNE: Neon Electric Signs Ltd. has edged Its dividend back from 121 percent to 15 percent. --------