Studying the Moderns - Australians in France and England 1890 – 1940

Evelyn Chapman, Girl in Red Hat, c1918_e

From the late 1800s many Australian artists travelled to Europe and England to study art – some for short periods and others settling there for most of their lives....

A Period in Focus

The Art of the Victorian Goldfields

The importance of sketches, paintings and prints as a record of everyday life on the goldfields can’t be understated, particularly. as the use of photography was still in its infancy in the 1850s...

TIME LINE OF AUSTRALIAN ART

TIME LINE OF EARLY EXPLORATION

Modern European Art History

Kiama Art Gallery

Artist in Focus

Emma Minnie Boyd - Art and Opportunity in Marvellous Melbourne

Minnie Boyd was well placed to emerge as a highly professional and respected artist during this period, even though her achievements, like so many female artists of her time, were not celebrated into the future...

Artist in Focus

Eileen Mayo - Printmaker & Designer

Arriving from England in 1952, Mayo made a significant contribution to art in Australia, particularly in printmaking. Her Australiana travel poster designs are iconic and she was commissioned to prepare six stamps, each depicting an Australian animal …

Conrad Martens, Forest Scene, Illawarra,

A Period in Focus

Colonial art in the Illawarra

The first art painted by artists in the Illawarra, which is still in existence, appeared around 1817. Most Colonial art, particularly during the first half of the century, focused on the picturesque nature of the region......

Lucie Cousturier, Self Portrait, c1905-1

Artists in Focus

Grace Cossington Smith and Lucie Cousturier - Post Impressionist bonds

Grace Cossington Smith, Study of A Head,

I'd like to introduce two artists, one from Paris and one from Sydney, whose work I consider to show remarkable Post Impressionist similarity ...

Artwork in Focus

William Ellis, View of Adventure Bay, Van Diemen's Land, New Holland, 1777

This painting of both the Resolution and Discovery in Adventure Bay is one of the few surviving original works in which Cook's ships are painted in Australian waters, and ....

Artwork in Focus

Sydney Parkinson, Kangaroo, 1770

Sydney Parkinson, who travelled with Captain James Cook on his first voyage to Australia on the Endeavour, was probably the first European to draw a kangaroo......

George Raper, King Parrot, 1788, National Library of Australia

The Art of the Early Explorers

We now use the various collections and individual pictures that were sketched and painted by our early explorers as significant records of history......

For inquiries and comments about this site, please contact me at kiamaartgallery@gmail.com.

In developing this website I have undertaken very careful research, but found that there are conflicting 'facts' from reputable sources - I have done my best to present the most accurate information available, but if you identify an error, please let me know.