John Lewin, Tasmanian Artist

Something different for me to post today.

The first Australian Artist.

When John Lewin stepped off the boat in Sydney, Australia on January 11, 1800, he was about to wield his paintbrush as the first free-settler professional artist in a wild frontier land.  He's already missed his first boat to Australia, the Buffalo, which his wife Anna Maria (also and artist) had boarded 18 months earlier.

So, he took the long journey to Australia alone, and he began his life in a new land amid controversy, when Anna Maria was accused in court of misconduct with the Buffalo's second mate - a charge which she was acquitted of.

Nonetheless, once he was settled, Lewin painted some of the earliest and most valuable paintings of Australia's fauna and flora, exhibiting a relaxed style at odds with the traditional European art, but well suited to the colonies.

John Lewin died in Sydney in 1819 as is buried at Botany Bay.

The Tasmanian Tiger, now extinct.

A Parakeet painted in water colours in 1810

Eastern Ground Parrot 1809. The parrot will fly at dawn and duck only. This parrot is only one of four ground parrots in this world.

Oil Painting done in 1819.

Waratah, water colour done in C 1805

The Court House in Ayr, Queensland

The Burdekin region was first settled in the 1860's and the town of Ayr was established in 1882.  The first courthouse was established in Ayr in 1883, which included the police quarters, lock-up and court room.  The population of the town continued to grow, with the support of the increasing number of sugar plantations and sugar growers.

In 1896, the original courthouse was unable to facilitate the needs of the town and construction on a new court house commenced in 1897.  The former courthouse remained erected for use by the police.

A disastrous cyclone, 'Leonta', swept through the Burdekin region and almost completely destroyed Ayr.  Much of the town needed to be rebuilt and the cyclone, including part of the courthouse roof.

So hence the construction of the newer Court House was built from 1935 to 1941 and is heritage listed.

Love the large verandah at each side to keep people waiting in the shade.   Went up the street one of the days we were there to take a photo and so many people waiting to have their case heard plus the street was full of parked cars.

The Police Station above and sculptures in front of the Library.

Shelter in the main street above and below just towards one of the side streets.

Graffiti in Melbourne, Victoria.

Graffiti is predominant in the inner city of Melbourne, Victoria, in the lane ways.  A cousin of my husbands sent me these photos taken yesterday.

Hosier Lane is a bluestone cobbled vehicular and pedestrian laneway on the southern edge of the central city grid of Melbourne, Australia. Hosier lane is a much celebrated landmark in Melbourne mainly due to its sophisticated urban art.

John Glover, The Artist

John Glover was an English/Australian artist in what is known as the early colonial period of Australian art. In Australia he has been dubbed the father of Australian landscape painting.

John Glover was born in Leicestershire, England. He showed a talent for drawing at an early age, and in 1794 was practising as an artist and drawing-master at Lichfield. The Countess of Harrington helped establish his practice as an art instructor, and may have taken lessons from him herself.
 
Removed to London in 1805, became a member of the Old Water Colour Society, and was elected its president in 1807. In the ensuing years he exhibited a large number of pictures at the exhibitions of this society, and also at the Royal Academy and the Society of British Artists. He had one-man shows in London in 1823 and 1824. He was a very successful artist and, although never elected a member of the Academy, his reputation stood very high with the public.

Glover arrived in Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), Australia on his 64th birthday in 1831, two decades before the goldrush of the 1850s. He brought with him a strong reputation as a landscape painter. He acquired one of the largest grants of land in Van Diemen's Land at the time at Mills Plains, Deddington. He named his new property Patterdale after Blowick Farm, a property near Patterdale, at the foot of Ullswater in the Lake District. (Information via Wikipedia)

Amazing as it may seem, my husbands GGGrandfather his wife and some of their children resided not far from Patterdale and as legend has it and knew the Glover's.

John Died at Patterdale in December 1849.

These two art works are from his Patterdale property.