Issuu

News

Wednesday October 31, 2012

Vale: Alan Grosvenor 1925-2012 Alan Grosvenor (Gravenor) died at the age of 86, on Wednesday, October 24, in Cooma Hospital - just four hours short short of his 87th birthday. A prolific artist, Alan leaves behind a legacy of art works which vividly capture the landscape of the Snowy Mountains and other parts of Australia wherever he chose to wander, palette and brushes in hand. Born on October 25 in Northbridge, Alan attended Northbridge Primary School and then completed his schooling at North Sydney High School, after which he attended North Sydney Trades School and entered the building trade. In 1942 he joined the Department of Aircraft Production where Beaufort, Beaufighters and later five Lancaster bombers, were constructed and he was

employed in the design department. From there he attended the Sydney Technical College School of Aeronautical Engineering and during the last 12 months of his period there he spent with QANTAS in the drawing office doing design work for components for aircraft. At the conclusion of the war, Alan married Morea Blakey and he resumed work as a builder on Sydney’s North Shore. Their daughter Robyn Louise was born in 1954. Soon Alan was buying and selling houses, an activity which expanded to include development and real estate sales with the opening of an office in Dee Why. A l a n Grosvenor took up painting on the advice of his doctor as a form of relaxation from his business. He took lessons with a Royal Academy exhibitor Gerald Nathan and the war artist Geoff Townsend. From those two people he learnt both sides of art – one a discipline and the very photographic type of art and the other one was Impressionism. Up until then boating had been Alan’s chief recreational pursuit and he designed and built boats from an early age – during the 1930s. He spent many happy hours sailing with his daughter Robyn who crewed for him in competition. A champion sailor, he was FREE HOME DELIVERY COOMA AREA* *conditions apply president of Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club for a time. It was his wish that following his death that “a bow wave” be held for him rather than a wake. In 1959, Alan Grosvenor came to the Snowy Mountains for a ski holiday at Perisher Valley. This was the first of many painting 22 Bombala St, Cooma trips to Jindabyne. Alan changed tack in 1963 from

real estate development to focus more on painting, however he remained in the construction industry. His paintings were beginning to sell well. By 1968 he had purchased property in Jindabyne and he opened Kunama Gallery in 1972. It is estimated that during his artistic career, he produced 6,000 paintings which

CRAZY SPECIAL

CHICKEN WINGS & DRUMSTICKS

$2.99kg

SOCCERBALL HAM

$8.99kg

CHICKEN SCHNITZEL

$12.99kg

Fatz Cutz Quality Meat

AVAILABLE

Ph: 6452 1634

now hang world-wide. Alan Grosvenor shared his love of painting with students and conducted art classes. He encouraged them, as Geoff Townsend taught him, to “overcome their fear of failure by not being able to produce good work, to get into a period of throwing paint around, loosen up, conquer that fear of failure, have a don’t care day, just throw it around and if it falls apart, try again” (Alan Grosvenor 2012) One of his students, Elisabeth Waite floated into his private life in the early 1980’s and they subsequently married following his divorce from Morea. Unfortunately the marriage ended in a divorce several years later. Alan travelled extensively, including the United Kingdom, in order to paint. One of his favourite painting destinations was Tasmania which he visited six times. Other parts of Australia included Broken Hill, the Pilbra and Cunnamulla where he painted and traded his paintings for opals rather than digging for them. Cloud formations and eucalyptus trees were a feature of Alan’s paintings.

To achieve the luminous effect, he invariably painted the canvas white before applying colour. Whilst at Cunnamulla he noted the cloud formations there were reflecting the colour of the soil underneath because of the sun hitting the ground, the red of the ground was reflected in the whiteness of the cloud in the opal fields of south west Queensland. This caused him to drive into town to Cunnamulla township “to buy a tube of cadmium red because I did not have a tube of cadnium red in palette because it was a very high chroma colour which is unusually necessary in the Australian landscape. With the three primaries he used, I usually use two yellows, two reds and two blues. The two reds being cadmium red or alizarin, magenta which another light red, and then in the yellow I use raw sienna and yellow ochre, and with the blue, ultramarine and cobalt. They come up in Heysen’s and most Australian landscape artists work”. (Grosvenor 2012) Noeline Dahlen Maclean met Alan in 1991 and so began 21 happy years for them both. They purchased the old Mendooran school bus and they had great fun converting it into a mobile art studio for their many field trips. Alan Grosvenor is survived by his partner Noeline; his daughter Robyn and step-son John. Noeline and Robyn will continue in partnership to run the Kunama Gallery. The family gathered for a private cremation ceremony officiated by the Reverend Owen Davies in Canberra on Tuesday October 30. You are invited to celebrate Alan’s life with the family at 4.30pm, on Friday, November 9 at Jindabyne’s Kunama Gallery Pictured, the late Alan Grosvenor.

COOMA PET SHOP • Pets, Fish & Accessories

• Pet sitting

• Quality Foods • Grooming

• Cat and Small animal boarding

• DIY Bathing

• Microchipping