In the best of times, artists attain a fruitful mature period when their unique perspective flows untramneled onto canvas, or plaster, or into marble or other media, yielding a significant body of high-quality, distinctive work. Australian wildlife and heritage artist Owen Pointon’s recent appointment as Artist in Residence at a new art gallery in Atherton, which for a year has offered Owen’s work through its Mt. Molly location, broadens just such opportunities in Owen’s career.
As a wannabe youth writer, I invariably received the advice to live deeply into my immediate world and write of subjects in which I had depth of knowledge and experience. Owen likely received similar advice. A precocious charmer of wildlife, in time Owen found he enjoyed adding old trucks, buildings, children and the like to otherwise wildlife scenes for his Heitage collections. Below, Owen at age 7 embracing a baby koala; a relative Pointon family riverboat which demands Heritage painting treatment, and the type of old trucks that warm his heart and whisper for inclusion in wildlife scenes.
Imagine an Old Testament God declaring, “you shall pass through the furnace, purifying away dross to reveal you– gold so sought after; yet like humble clay you will be shaped, slammed back to a mound, spun upward in excellence on a potter’s wheel, the trials and tribulation that form character; remember– I smile on you, part of my good creation.”
Owen leads a full life; he leads no tortured, solitary van Gogh life. Rather, after an early divorce and single fatherhood, he and divorceè Marj, with a young daughter, found their perfect mates in the other: Love at first sight. Owen gave Marg’s daughter away in marriage some years ago:
Owen plays a competitive game of Lawn Bowls, like golf, a hymn to unpredictability — absolutely invented by Scots, as long ago as the 13th century.
Lawn Bowls, played throughout the Commonwealth and even in New York City’s Central Park, uses deformed “bias balls”, which pitch along curved paths, to approach as near as possible to the round white “jack” thrown initially onto the field. Owen and Marg compete near home, in Melbourne, and across Australia.
Other favorite activities in the past few years have included cruises, including an Alaska cruise, which introduced Owen to the bald eagle and admitted of a side-trip to visit with Vancouver, BC relatives.
So keep your eyes open for Owen’s works; join his Facebook group to stay abreast of sales, opportunities, and new merchandising with reprints of signature pieces. I’m quite the fan of wearable art– check out this Eagle nest mini and ultimate commuter galah cockatoo bag!
BirbObserver 