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Full Circle for Brian Williams

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“I just like to depict life,” said artist Brian Williams as we discussed his upcoming Cohuna art exhibition.

“It’s all very well to do a landscape, but I find I want to put some human interest into it.”

From landscapes to seascapes, Brian’s work captures the beauty of the Australian environment, the animals and people.

The exhibition titled Full Circle sees Brian retrace his steps to the towns and countryside that influenced him as a young man.

“I love the Murray, the river is a part of you, and the gum trees,” said Brian.

“In my early work, I only ever drew gum trees and painted gum trees.”

Arriving in Adelaide as “10 pound poms”, Brian’s family bought an old truck and drove across country with another family before landing in Moulamein. 

“I arrived with my parents when I was one year old, Dad was working in a sawmill camp there.”

The stay in Moulamein was short lived before the family relocated to Koondrook.

The first living at a sawmill came before moving in with the Bowmans on Thompson Street.

“Dad renovated that (the house) and we lived in half of the house for a few years, until we went back (to England) in 1956.”

The trip back to England was in response to family pressures to return, but Brian’s father only lasted about three months, with Brian and his mother following six months later.

“Dad came straight back and started building a house two houses down from where we’re staying with Bowman’s.”

Brian attended Koondrook Primary and then went on to high schooling in Kerang, catching the train over. It was in Year 11 when Brian started art with Dirk Bannerman teaching.

“That’s when I really became seriously interested in art.

“I attribute a lot of my interest to lots of visits to the art gallery in Bendigo from an early age.”

Brian’s passion was further fuelled when he won a junior prize at the Kerang art show.

At the age of 18, Brian left for Melbourne for work before returning 12 months later obtaining employment with the State River and Water Commission as a surveyor and draftsman.

“I probably would have stayed there but I was called up for National Service.

“I did two years of National Service and then I couldn’t settle, so I came back down to Melbourne.”

Brian’s art aspirations had been on the back burner as cars and girls took priority for the young man, although it was never far away, Brian picking up a pencil to sketch while deployed in the army. 

Settling down and marrying Debbie, the pair had two children while living in the Melbourne suburb of Chelsea.

“That’s when I got serious about my art.

“I started doing watercolour classes at the Mentone Mordialloc Art Group.

“I met a guy called Clive Sinclair and I spent the next 20 years painting with him.

“Because I’d been a draftsman and surveyor, I was very tight with my work up until I met him. He’s a very minimalist painter and he sort of dragged me back to sort of where I am now.”

Brian held his first exhibition in 2011 at Moorabbin at the Kingston Network Gallery, selling half the paintings on the first night and enough commissions for two years’ worth of work.

“At that stage, I thought I might become professional and Clive welcomed me to the professional art scene by saying ‘welcome to poverty’.” 

The seed was sown for a Cohuna exhibition at a 50-year Kerang High School reunion, where Brian met Lorraine, who suggested holding an art exhibition at Cohuna Art Gallery. Years on, the plan is coming to fruition!

Brian’s work began with oils, graduated to watercolour and is now welcoming acrylics and inks to the palette as he aims to demonstrate everyday life, with a backdrop in nature.

Come and see Brian Williams’ ‘Full Circle’ at the Cohuna Art Gallery, opening on March 30 at 6pm, with the exhibition running throughout May. 

The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper 23 March 2023

This article appeared in The Koondrook and Barham Bridge Newspaper, 23 March 2023.

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