Who is Gordon ?
I was born in 1959 in Adelaide, and spent the first 6 years of my life in a motor-bike shop in Kilburn. The family then moved to Houghton from where attended both Primary School and 3 years of High School. While I was at Primary School I painted a picture and was duly accused of lying about its authenticity, the belief being that my father had painted the portrait. By the time I reached 3rd year High School, I was engaged in Matriculation level Art projects. From that time on, I have been what is fondly termed “self taught”.
During the early years of adulthood, Art was always a part of my psyche, but the experiences and circumstances of years of nursing, a serious motor-bike accident and regular bouts of a debilitating depressive illness saw me ultimately drifting from one job to another , steadily losing touch with my painting, and plummeting on the downward spiral.
In 1990, I met my wife Kath, and we moved to Macclesfield. From then on, things began to look a whole lot better. She encouraged me to seek help with my illness, and again pursue my Art. During this time, I was fortunate enough to be offered one on one tuition with Barbara Leslie, an established South Australian artist, who helped me enormously with my drawing and watercolour technique.
In 1996, I finally met the man who was to become my friend and mentor, and
the greatest of my teachers, Earl Williams, who, at that time was a practicing
psychiatrist.
He showed me a different way of looking at Art, a way that I finally related
to, a move away from sentimentality and prettiness towards painting which
showed more of my heart, more of my passion, more of the way I was seeing
the world of people. He was always encouraging, always constructively critical
and always the greatest of friends. It was he, who pointed out that humour
and drama are, at least in my case, the two most important ingredients to
a good painting.
Since the mid 90’s I have devoted my days to the pursuit of my passion,
and it is at my easel that I feel most comfortable.