We all know Hill End for its gold. However many dont realise that it is important for Australian art a hangout for painters, many of whom painted gold-related features. The best known are Donald Friend and Russell Drysdale who lived there for a long time. Others, some of whom would have been influenced to go there by Friend and Drysdale I imagine, include Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen. David Strachan, Margaret Olley, John Firth-Smith, Michael Johnson, Spence, Paul Haefliger, Jean Bellette, Brett Whitely. The cottages they lived in and the hotel of their paintings are still there I know of nowhere else that was such a magnet for Australian artists.
Many of you have probably seen some paintings done in Hill End by this crowd:
Drysdale The Cricketers, Houses on Big Oakey, Hill End, Woman in a landscape, Hill End
Friend Sofala, The Cottage, Hill End Landscape
Spemce The Artists cottage
Strachan Hill End Landscape with Two Houses
Whiteley Gold Mining, Out of Hill End
Smart Nuns Picnic
Haefliger Deep Creek, Hillend
Bellette The Fossicker
Olley Hill End Ruins
See- Gavin Wilson: The Artists of Hill End
Many of you have probably seen some paintings done in Hill End by this crowd:
Drysdale The Cricketers, Houses on Big Oakey, Hill End, Woman in a landscape, Hill End
Friend Sofala, The Cottage, Hill End Landscape
Spemce The Artists cottage
Strachan Hill End Landscape with Two Houses
Whiteley Gold Mining, Out of Hill End
Smart Nuns Picnic
Haefliger Deep Creek, Hillend
Bellette The Fossicker
Olley Hill End Ruins
See- Gavin Wilson: The Artists of Hill End
Might need to get some goldsmith training and become a true Aussie artisan.
