Art by John Cornwell

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"Coaching past the pub"

Oil on canvas, mounted on board 600 x 450mm

SOLD

2 Clydesdales are waiting for a feed

Oil on canvas, mounted on board. 600 x 450mm unframed

MY LIFE AND BRUSH WITH ART

 I grew up in Sydney. After leaving school I won a scholarship and spent three years full time at the National Art School. Leaving there, I went out into the world to earn a living. 

In the early 1950’s you could count the number of artists actually earning a living from painting on your fingers. Even such masters as Eliot Gruner had worked in a Sydney department store. Others were teaching, which I was disinclined to do, or else they were involved in commercial art.

 I travelled, and worked on a Moree sheep station as a jackeroo. I loved the life – riding, mustering and droving, and all that went with a country life. However if you were not likely to become a land owner, which I was not, there was little future in it.  

Returning to the big smoke I looked around for some occupation connected with art in which, (with my strictly limited capital), I could set up business. Screen printing appeared a possibility that attracted me. To learn more about it I worked for a textile printer, after which I set up with an older partner, and we worked through thick and thin together. Too thin for my partner who left.

I carried on for 18 years, my swan song being the production of all the banners that lined the streets of the Sydney CBD for the Captain Cook Bicentenary celebrations.   

I had kept my hand in with life drawing and a little painting until I saw an opportunity to sell my work. The business was sold up and after a year of screen printing during the week, and painting all through the weekends, and in the evenings, I almost instantly became a full time artist, as I still am 47 years later.  

Lady luck was good to me, and I got commissions for murals at the Gazebo Hotel at Kings Cross and the Terrace Hotel in Brisbane. The latter was 2.5 metres square, and was transported in a semi-trailer, sandwiched into a load of mattresses. It remained on the wall there, until quite recently. 

These were followed by a succession of large commissions for Cahills’ restaurants, which were undergoing a considerable expansion at the time. In these the whole surrounding walls were covered with murals depicting various themes.

The first was for “The Asian Trader” in Chatswood, themed after the ruins of Angkor Wat.  These panels incorporated tumbled stone work, great carved heads invaded by the jungle, with vines and roots entangled, Asian dancers and all.

A “Dutch Village” in Park Street, Sydney, was followed by another in Melbourne, where one 8 foot panel was designed after Vermeer’s “View of Delft”. Years later I saw the original, which was a very small painting packed with marvellously controlled detail.

The mural went along walls, into niches, around several corners, making for some interesting problems with perspective. At one vital point in the design, they wanted an ice machine, so they re-arranged the panels, finishing up with something a bit different from my original plan.

An Italian theme was featured in the “Italia Romantica” restaurant in the Strand Arcade. This included an eight foot portrait of Cardinal Richelieu in his scarlet robes, after Philippe de Champagne, whose work I had seen shortly before, on an overseas trip. Looking back, I am amazed at what I achieved, so long ago. 

A “Tom Jones” theme was used in the “Windsor Tavern” in Park Street, with illustrations from the famous novel, helped somewhat by the film which came out at about this time. There was an attached cocktail bar, with themes from “My Fair Lady” 

Most of these were painted on panels cut to size by the shop fitter and delivered to my “studio.” We had bought a dilapidated, Victorian two story house where I worked in a disused spare bedroom about 16 feet square, with French doors that opened onto a verandah. These panels, some as big as 8 feet x 12 feet, had to be hoisted up over the verandah rail. I had to knock out the lintel above the doors, and tilt the fan light to fit them through. With half a dozen in the room, it got quite crowded. The set bound for the “Windsor Tavern” was filmed by the TV news as panels of horses, and Ascot ladies were taken away.

 All this came to an end, when the manager of Cahills fell sick, and returned to his native Switzerland.  

To my surprise these murals lasted many years, some only being removed when the buildings were demolished, or re-modelled.

During this time, I had my first exhibition, at the Sebert Gallery in Argyle Place in the Rocks. This was called “A Homage to Australian Art.” I included portraits of some notable artists in their own landscapes. There was William Dobell with the boys having a beer with the “Cement Worker” and a couple of other men he had painted. Another was “Sir William with the Ladies”, and featured him with Helena Rubinstein and Margaret Olley. Another picture had Norman Lindsay dressed as a pirate, in a scene of debauchery. 

Luckily  this attracted some attention, and the exhibition sold well enough to set me on the road. Shortly afterwards, I was visiting a cousin on his property at Burren Junction, at a time when I was working on a big landscape of “the plains extended.” I was looking for a centre of interest for the painting, when along came a team of 36 Clydesdale horses pulling a “delver”. This is like the front of a ship with a long keel, which is used to clean out the bore drains, which are as much as 60 miles long. These drains channel the water that overflows from the artesian bores, supplying the needs of stock, and for irrigation. I added this team as a distant focal point. It sold very quickly and people have been asking for horses ever since.  

By this quirk of circumstance, I have become well known for painting working horses. For these, I have a particular fondness - particularly the feather footed Clydesdales. After all these years I have never tired of painting them as they have infinite variety. People with a similar love come from near and far to my exhibitions. I have also had several families club together to commission a special painting for a significant event, including two involving bullock teams associated with the family, set in the appropriate landscape .

I have just had my 33rd solo exhibition - the 5th at the Boyd Galleries.  Among the thirty plus works I depicted were a wide range of rural activities. These horse paintings, included Clydesdales cultivating, ploughing, harvesting, hay making and wool carting.  

I developed my fascination with the“Gentle Giants” in my early childhood, when these were everyday happenings on the various farms and properties I frequently visited. The spring cart, sulky and buggy were a common form of transport and out went the wagons with the 8’ diameter wheels, hauled by teams of up to 20 (or more), horses. These were the heavy goods carriers, usually to and from the nearest railhead, or seaport.  

When I made my mid-life sea change to become a full time artist, I had a century-old Victorian house which we had rescued and restored. Here I set up my studio in an upstairs bedroom.

My wife and I had fallen in love with this place, which, although surrounded by busy suburbia had retained much of the original block, so that it stood in a large garden, where there was the old stable and tack room building. This was overgrown with wisteria, which was a dream in spring. The old place had the country atmosphere, and even two of the 5-barred farm gates, that I sought to capture in my paintings.

When our sons went their own way, my wife and I moved to a farmhouse with a small acreage on the outskirts of Kiama, and I set up my studio in the abandoned cow bales. Among the stone walls, rolling green hills, backed by an ever-changing escarpment and sparkling seas, it was a heavenly place to live.

This was the country where my forbears were original settlers, and where I had worked with the heavy horses, ponies, and stock horses which were so much part of country life in my childhood when holidaying on my uncle’s farm.  

At Silver Hill, I had sheds and a barn where I could keep my collection of harness, horse drawn vehicles and farm machinery – all first class reference for my art works. 

Our property turned out to be in area slated for subdivision, so we sadly had to leave as it’s magic was going to be destroyed, but we were very fortunate to get a house on half an acre where I was able to build a new studio which holds a lot of artefacts and my library of reference books, with space for carpentry, wood carving and sculpting. The block is backed by one of the original local dry stone walls, so it still retains some country charm with views of mountains, hills and sea.  

Even today a lot of stock work is done on horseback – mustering, droving and yarding sheep and cattle. I have jackerooed, and worked with cattle drovers on “The Long Paddock.” I have also ridden long distances across all sorts of terrain, from the Western Plains, to the steepest and roughest wilderness country, along water courses, and over mountain ranges.  On these rides, I have gained great respect for these wonderful animals. Their power and stamina is beyond belief.  

Another love of mine has been ships and sailing craft. My youth and childhood, when not visiting the country relations, was spent on the shores of Sydney Harbour, where I swam, and sailed, raced and cruised in a variety of craft over a period of about 40 years. This means that I have been able to vary my subjects to include seascapes, marine subjects, and landscapes as well as commissioned portraits.  

My best known work is probably not one of my oil paintings, but the sculpture of Matthew Flinders’ cat “Trim,” a bronze sculpture commissioned by the NSW State Library, and installed on the window sill of the Mitchell Library in Macquarie Street in Sydney. 

On overseas trips, funded by my painting, I have had the good fortune to visit most of the western world’s greatest galleries – and many of the lesser ones as well. It is a humbling experience to stand before the works of the world’s most famous artists. As an artist you never stop learning and it is an occupation you can continue well past ‘retirement age.’ 

To my surprise in 2001, I was invited to the Sultanate of Oman to exhibit paintings in a Global Art Exhibition representing the Continent of Australia. This was a wonderful experience, exhibiting with distinguished people from the other continents.  

I count myself most fortunate to have been able to support my family by doing what I like best.  I live with my wife, whom I married in 1958, and we have 2 sons. One is an actuary, the other a Hollywood film director. 

Just to fill in my time, I am the President of the Kiama and District Historical Society, where amongst other things we run the local Pilot’s Cottage Museum. I am a Past President of Kiama Rotary, with whom I am still active, and a Paul Harris Fellow. I received a Commonwealth Centenary Medal in 2004.

cTO PURCHASE PAINTINGS : please contact the artist by e-mail, and let him know your requirements. He can create pictures that mean something special to you, incorporating dreams, significant family photos or memories, and which become family heirlooms, first sending photos of drawings for your consideration.