Go back in time to a sultry Queensland afternoon

Throughout the 1920s and 30s Queensland artists painted outdoors, their subject matter ranged widely from the beach, the bush, to the city. Vida Lahey was no exception, however during the early 30s Lahey was absorbed by sites around Brisbane and in 1931 painted Sultry noon focusing on the architecture of Brisbane’s Central Railway Station and…

Go back in time and explore Queensland through photography

The surname should be familiar, taking its name from Richard Daintree (1832-78), the Daintree Rainforest near Mossman — north of the regional city of Cairns — is part of the largest continuous area of tropical rainforest in Australia and the oldest surviving tropical rainforest in the world. A number of features in North Queensland have…

Go back in time to 1885 when Brisbane was a young township

Harriet Jane Neville-Rolfe’s watercolour Houses of Parliament, Brisbane 1885 (illustrated) was painted just before the artist left Australia to return to England. We can clearly see Queensland’s Parliament House and other recognisable Brisbane landmarks from across the river in a depiction of the daily life of a port city named after the river that runs…

Go back in time to an evening at Dutton Park in Brisbane

Evening (Mt Coot-tha from Dutton Park) 1898 (illustrated) is an accomplished work of a painter aware of the work of his Australian contemporaries Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Charles Conder. Frederick James (FJ) Martyn Roberts, born in 1871 was 27 at the time he completed Evening using the Australian impressionists broad-brushed technique to depict the…

Interior view encapsulates Charles Blackman’s new love and muse

The time Charles Blackman (1928-2018 ) spent in Queensland was central to his development as one of the most important Australian artists of his generation. It was during his early visits to Brisbane first in 1948 and then regularly from 1951, that the artist experienced the sense of intense personal discovery that was to launch…