The moment every artist is waiting for, says John Adam, is the moment when they lose control of a work. That’s when the magic happens. By Catherine Watson
FOR ONE of Bass Coast’s most accomplished and acclaimed artists, John Adam is surprisingly hesitant about how to actually do art – and even sometimes about the value of doing it.
“Sometimes I think a career in art is a waste of time,” he muses. “At the same time I think art is the backbone of society. The aesthetic sense is what distinguishes humans from animals.
“I always think my painting is terrible. I always hope the next one will be better. Sometimes I can do what I want to do very fast. Sometimes I just can’t get to it. It depends on all kinds of things. I’m never sure what I’m doing until I’m doing it.”
FOR ONE of Bass Coast’s most accomplished and acclaimed artists, John Adam is surprisingly hesitant about how to actually do art – and even sometimes about the value of doing it.
“Sometimes I think a career in art is a waste of time,” he muses. “At the same time I think art is the backbone of society. The aesthetic sense is what distinguishes humans from animals.
“I always think my painting is terrible. I always hope the next one will be better. Sometimes I can do what I want to do very fast. Sometimes I just can’t get to it. It depends on all kinds of things. I’m never sure what I’m doing until I’m doing it.”
A multiple winner of Bass Coast’s acquisitive arts prize, his work is held by the Gippsland Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Victoria.
A retrospective exhibition at the Leeson Street Gallery from October 30 features traditional and meticulous works as well as abstracts. In his 88th year, he is experienced enough to follow wherever a work leads him.
A retrospective exhibition at the Leeson Street Gallery from October 30 features traditional and meticulous works as well as abstracts. In his 88th year, he is experienced enough to follow wherever a work leads him.
He quotes the late Desiderius Orban, an eminent Sydney artist and educator: “The artist, beginning a work, is the dictator of what will happen. At a certain point, however, an indescribable sensation intervenes. The painting takes command. This is the moment when, even in a descriptive painting, the pictorial element takes the upper hand.”
That’s the moment an artist – any creative person – is waiting for, says John. When the magic happens. “It doesn’t always happen. And sometimes it can happen much later.
“Picasso said a painting is a sum of destructions. if something isn’t working I will destroy what’s there by painting over it and turning the painting into something else.”
He was 15 when he did his first painting that “worked” “I fell in love with painting. My family didn’t understand. They were all logical. My father was a successful businessman. I was doing commerce at Melbourne University and I hated it!
“When I took up art he thought I was crazy. He even went to Swinburne and asked the teachers to dissuade me. I understand why he wasn’t happy. He never understood art. He said ‘If you’re going to be an artist, at least paint what people like – like gum trees’.”
There was one member of the family, however, who did understand. He sometimes stayed with his Aunt Dorothy in St Kilda. She was a kind, cultured, open minded academic and Adam says she opened his eyes to another way of being and living.
One day he was looking at a small painting on her wall that had been done with a palette knife. “Do you like that painting?” his aunt asked
“Yes I do.”
“It was done by a 17-year-old.”
The artist was Arthur Boyd. “I wonder whatever happened to that painting,” Adam muses.
When he was in year 12 at Melbourne Grammar the school employed a young artist part time to teach art. For three-quarters of an hour every week Adam was allowed to visit the art teacher. “He used to bring in drawings and talk about them and get me to try things. He didn’t talk much but when he did you listened. His name was John Brack. It was before the name meant anything, of course.”
The Cowes exhibition features a couple of works from every decade of his career, although just one from the ‘50s. In the 1955 Christmas holidays he went up to Queensland for a few weeks. He’s still got the sketch books he took on holiday. When he returned he did a painting and gave it to his mother. He got it back after his mother died. The painting is Morning Light, which features in the invitation. It’s one of his favourites. He says he’ll put a high price on it so it doesn’t sell!
It’s an assured work from the then 21-year-old. Adam says he’s often surprised when he looks back at the works of his younger self. “It’s the freshness, the simplicity. Art I’ve put away for years, and they look terrific.”
At Swinburne Art School, he was regarded as highly talented and had some success in the 1960s. “It all seemed so easy to me, but I didn’t understand the politics of art. The tonalists and abstractonists were at loggerheads. I was doing abstracts and I switched to realism! I was regarded as a traitor.”
Like Bob Dylan playing an electric guitar at Newport and horrifying his folkie fans?
Adam laughs. “I learnt a lot from Bob Dylan. He said ‘I’m a musician. I’ll do what I want to do’.”
Speaking of Dylan, in the ‘70s he did a bit of sitting around smoking dope himself. Most of the time, he says, it helped to expand his understanding of painting and music and poetry. He lived for a period at Dunmoochin, an artists’ colony, but there was never time for too much mooching because he had to earn a living as well. For most of his career, he combined art with secondary teaching, including at his old school, Melbourne Grammar.
“I found out I was good at teaching. I liked sharing what I knew with people who were interested. When I was teaching at secondary schools, I always had a night class.”
He still has a class: “the Friday mob”, as they call themselves, who meet at Diana Bannister’s studio on the island. “I mentored her and now she’s a professional and she mentors me. I’m coming to the end of teaching. Maybe another year but we’ll see.”
He pays a special tribute to his partner, Jan Fleming, for her love and support of his artistic muse. “The decades I’ve gone through all kinds of ups and downs. It’s been a terrific journey. I’ve been very lucky to do what I wanted to do.”
John Adam Selected Works 1956-2022, Leeson Street Gallery, 38 Leeson Street, Cowes, from October 30 to November 13. Open 11am-3pm, closed Tuesdays. The opening is on Sunday, Oct 30, 2-4pm.
That’s the moment an artist – any creative person – is waiting for, says John. When the magic happens. “It doesn’t always happen. And sometimes it can happen much later.
“Picasso said a painting is a sum of destructions. if something isn’t working I will destroy what’s there by painting over it and turning the painting into something else.”
He was 15 when he did his first painting that “worked” “I fell in love with painting. My family didn’t understand. They were all logical. My father was a successful businessman. I was doing commerce at Melbourne University and I hated it!
“When I took up art he thought I was crazy. He even went to Swinburne and asked the teachers to dissuade me. I understand why he wasn’t happy. He never understood art. He said ‘If you’re going to be an artist, at least paint what people like – like gum trees’.”
There was one member of the family, however, who did understand. He sometimes stayed with his Aunt Dorothy in St Kilda. She was a kind, cultured, open minded academic and Adam says she opened his eyes to another way of being and living.
One day he was looking at a small painting on her wall that had been done with a palette knife. “Do you like that painting?” his aunt asked
“Yes I do.”
“It was done by a 17-year-old.”
The artist was Arthur Boyd. “I wonder whatever happened to that painting,” Adam muses.
When he was in year 12 at Melbourne Grammar the school employed a young artist part time to teach art. For three-quarters of an hour every week Adam was allowed to visit the art teacher. “He used to bring in drawings and talk about them and get me to try things. He didn’t talk much but when he did you listened. His name was John Brack. It was before the name meant anything, of course.”
The Cowes exhibition features a couple of works from every decade of his career, although just one from the ‘50s. In the 1955 Christmas holidays he went up to Queensland for a few weeks. He’s still got the sketch books he took on holiday. When he returned he did a painting and gave it to his mother. He got it back after his mother died. The painting is Morning Light, which features in the invitation. It’s one of his favourites. He says he’ll put a high price on it so it doesn’t sell!
It’s an assured work from the then 21-year-old. Adam says he’s often surprised when he looks back at the works of his younger self. “It’s the freshness, the simplicity. Art I’ve put away for years, and they look terrific.”
At Swinburne Art School, he was regarded as highly talented and had some success in the 1960s. “It all seemed so easy to me, but I didn’t understand the politics of art. The tonalists and abstractonists were at loggerheads. I was doing abstracts and I switched to realism! I was regarded as a traitor.”
Like Bob Dylan playing an electric guitar at Newport and horrifying his folkie fans?
Adam laughs. “I learnt a lot from Bob Dylan. He said ‘I’m a musician. I’ll do what I want to do’.”
Speaking of Dylan, in the ‘70s he did a bit of sitting around smoking dope himself. Most of the time, he says, it helped to expand his understanding of painting and music and poetry. He lived for a period at Dunmoochin, an artists’ colony, but there was never time for too much mooching because he had to earn a living as well. For most of his career, he combined art with secondary teaching, including at his old school, Melbourne Grammar.
“I found out I was good at teaching. I liked sharing what I knew with people who were interested. When I was teaching at secondary schools, I always had a night class.”
He still has a class: “the Friday mob”, as they call themselves, who meet at Diana Bannister’s studio on the island. “I mentored her and now she’s a professional and she mentors me. I’m coming to the end of teaching. Maybe another year but we’ll see.”
He pays a special tribute to his partner, Jan Fleming, for her love and support of his artistic muse. “The decades I’ve gone through all kinds of ups and downs. It’s been a terrific journey. I’ve been very lucky to do what I wanted to do.”
John Adam Selected Works 1956-2022, Leeson Street Gallery, 38 Leeson Street, Cowes, from October 30 to November 13. Open 11am-3pm, closed Tuesdays. The opening is on Sunday, Oct 30, 2-4pm.