By Catherine Watson
MARK Schaller calls it extreme painting. He’s referring to the situations he and his Phillip Island painting mate Mick Turner sometimes find themselves in, which adds an extra frisson to the challenge of plein air painting.
Recently he sought the shade of the cliff to set up his easel at Smiths Beach. Mick pointed out the sign beside him, “Falling rocks”, and prudently shifted down the beach. Mark decided he’d risk it and painted on.
A recent evening painting at Cape Woolamai turned into night. By the time they packed up, darkness had fallen and they inched their return along the clifftop trail.
MARK Schaller calls it extreme painting. He’s referring to the situations he and his Phillip Island painting mate Mick Turner sometimes find themselves in, which adds an extra frisson to the challenge of plein air painting.
Recently he sought the shade of the cliff to set up his easel at Smiths Beach. Mick pointed out the sign beside him, “Falling rocks”, and prudently shifted down the beach. Mark decided he’d risk it and painted on.
A recent evening painting at Cape Woolamai turned into night. By the time they packed up, darkness had fallen and they inched their return along the clifftop trail.
“It gets pretty extreme. We thought next time maybe next we’d try the middle of a freeway in the wind and rain.”
Schaller’s bold, vibrant and often humorous paintings brought him success from his early 20s, fresh out of the Victorian College of the Arts. In the early 80s he helped to establish Roar Studios, then the ultimate in hip urban art. The National Gallery of Australia bought some of his works.
Schaller’s bold, vibrant and often humorous paintings brought him success from his early 20s, fresh out of the Victorian College of the Arts. In the early 80s he helped to establish Roar Studios, then the ultimate in hip urban art. The National Gallery of Australia bought some of his works.
| Mark Schaller’s works feature in the PICES 2024 In Focus Exhibition at Berninneit, the Cowes Cultural Centre, from January 31 - February 12. The three featured artists, including weaver Mae Adams and sculptor Andrew Kasper are in conversation with journalist Catherine Watson on Sunday, February 4, at 2pm. All welcome. | I ask him if the early success was daunting. No, he says, he made the most of it. Roar Studios was great fun. He didn’t mind the high expectations. He used the money to travel and to see the world of art. “I felt very privileged. I thought that’s the best way to learn.” Since then he’s managed that rare feat for an Australian artist of making a living without having to get “a proper job”. (Well, he did have one once, painting apartments in New York, but it didn’t last long.) |
“I was never a career artist. I didn’t ever think about the possibility of not being able to survive. I just thought I’d survive somehow if I was resourceful enough.”
Now, in his middle to late career, he seems entirely unaffected by being a successful artist, with works in the NGA, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, and the ultimate accolade, having an art series hotel named for him: the Mercure Bendigo Schaller.
For a long time he divided his time between Melbourne and Phillip Island but he’s now based full time on the island, in an idiosyncratic house he built himself within earshot of the Woolamai surf. It was surfing that first brought him to Phillip Island as a teenager and he still loves both.
“When people ask me to name my favourite place in Victoria, I tell them the Otways,” he says drily.
Now, in his middle to late career, he seems entirely unaffected by being a successful artist, with works in the NGA, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Ian Potter Museum of Art, and the ultimate accolade, having an art series hotel named for him: the Mercure Bendigo Schaller.
For a long time he divided his time between Melbourne and Phillip Island but he’s now based full time on the island, in an idiosyncratic house he built himself within earshot of the Woolamai surf. It was surfing that first brought him to Phillip Island as a teenager and he still loves both.
“When people ask me to name my favourite place in Victoria, I tell them the Otways,” he says drily.
Now his studio is full of gorgeous bright seascapes - Smiths Beach, Pyramid Rock, the Newhaven mud flats, Churchill Road, Cape Woolamai, – that he’s been working on for the exhibition at Berninneit. There’s a massive Eagles Nest, with dinosaur footprints. He likes painting on a big scale, that feeling of being engulfed by the work.
“I hope people will enjoy them,” he says.
He’s drawn and painted since he was a kid, when his mother used to wangle the paper off the local butcher. “Butchers are usually pretty jovial. He’d say ‘The kid can have as much as he can carry’. So that was my drawing paper.”
When he wakes up he never knows exactly what he’ll be doing, but he tries to make art every day. “I feel kind of anxious if I don’t work. I feel as though something’s not complete.
“I enjoy it. I go out and try to make it exciting for myself and interesting. I can work anywhere. I travel a bit and I go with a suitcase and paper. I can just open the suitcase and it’s like a studio. Everything’s in there. I’m happy to work in most places.
“I’ve been doing it for so long but I don’t ever take it for granted. There are a lot of people I’m very grateful to who have kept my pictures over the years and they still have them hanging. I know they don’t just hang them because they know I’m coming around. ‘He’s coming around. Put up that rotten painting!’”
“I hope people will enjoy them,” he says.
He’s drawn and painted since he was a kid, when his mother used to wangle the paper off the local butcher. “Butchers are usually pretty jovial. He’d say ‘The kid can have as much as he can carry’. So that was my drawing paper.”
When he wakes up he never knows exactly what he’ll be doing, but he tries to make art every day. “I feel kind of anxious if I don’t work. I feel as though something’s not complete.
“I enjoy it. I go out and try to make it exciting for myself and interesting. I can work anywhere. I travel a bit and I go with a suitcase and paper. I can just open the suitcase and it’s like a studio. Everything’s in there. I’m happy to work in most places.
“I’ve been doing it for so long but I don’t ever take it for granted. There are a lot of people I’m very grateful to who have kept my pictures over the years and they still have them hanging. I know they don’t just hang them because they know I’m coming around. ‘He’s coming around. Put up that rotten painting!’”