Renowned artist Ron Muller at work in his Acheron studio. by Carol Hopkins
R
on Muller, a renowned artist living in Acheron, has had an extremely eclectic career. He has reinvented himself at least four times, and his career switches have been so disparate and dramatic that he jokingly says his wife, Maree, has been married to four men! While the current version of Ron – an accomplished watercolour and landscape
artist – has been around for over 30 years, his journey to this career has had plenty of twists and turns. Ron began his working life about as far away from the art world as you can get with an apprenticeship in the General Motors Holden factory at Fisherman’s Bend. Ron was encouraged into this area by his father, who placed a high value on having a trade. Ron excelled at his work and
was supported by the company to study a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at Caulfield Institute of Technology. But his heart wasn’t in it. “I wasn’t all that fussed with engineering,” he admits. Part way through Ron’s studies, the American evangelist Billy Graham arrived in Australia to conduct his Crusades. Inspired by Billy Graham’s message, Ron decided to
become a Baptist minister. After four years of study at Whitley University College, he was assigned to two churches in Malvern. This was in the 1960s, a time of immense social change, and Ron’s enthusiastic engagement with the social issues of the time earned him a reputation as a bit of a radical. His progressive ideas, particularly for selling one of the churches to establish a social support and counselling centre, were not Murrindindi Guide – AUTUMN 2022 – 53
