The Bass Coast Artists Society has engaged noted ceramicist Rob Matheson to run a monthly class at the Rescue Station in Wonthaggi. He’s pictured during a recent class with the Bribie Potters. By Liane Arno
“No one dies from schizophrenia,” Rob Matheson tells me. And yet his mother had schizophrenia and died at just 48 years of age. She was a deeply compassionate woman who ran the TB Ward at the Heidelberg Hospital.
There was no such thing as a remedy for PTSD in those days. They filled her with psychotropic drugs and gave her ECT until she resembled Jack Nicholson in the final scene of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
From this terrible experience Rob has become an incredibly empathetic person, an amazing artist and lover of the natural world.
“No one dies from schizophrenia,” Rob Matheson tells me. And yet his mother had schizophrenia and died at just 48 years of age. She was a deeply compassionate woman who ran the TB Ward at the Heidelberg Hospital.
There was no such thing as a remedy for PTSD in those days. They filled her with psychotropic drugs and gave her ECT until she resembled Jack Nicholson in the final scene of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
From this terrible experience Rob has become an incredibly empathetic person, an amazing artist and lover of the natural world.
Rob's father was a railway man who used to stoke the fires on the trains to and from the State Coal Mine. They were living in Springvale at the time when it had an almost exclusively white Anglo-Saxon community. It was a huge shock when some Greeks moved in who instead of growing grass grew vegetables. Eminently sensible of course, but raised some eyebrows at the time.
Rob’s father encouraged his son to appreciate nature and from that to take up art. His extended family included his aunt Dorothy Owen, a poet and influencer with the Australian Writers Guild. His grandmother, Zelma was a radio host for Bendigo’s BCV8 and used the pseudonym, Donna Buang. Both of these women were strong women that he admired and who encouraged him to explore art.
Rob’s father encouraged his son to appreciate nature and from that to take up art. His extended family included his aunt Dorothy Owen, a poet and influencer with the Australian Writers Guild. His grandmother, Zelma was a radio host for Bendigo’s BCV8 and used the pseudonym, Donna Buang. Both of these women were strong women that he admired and who encouraged him to explore art.
| Unfortunately, Rob’s parents made the decision to send their son to Clayton Technical School, where he was shockingly bullied. There was no respite at home with a schizophrenic mother. To make matters worse Rob was a young Mormon. When other lads were thinking about sex, alcohol and swearing, Rob’s religion prevented him from doing so. Rob is philosophical about it and thinks that it is from this that he learned to be empathetic and compassionate. He left school after Year 8 and became an opal cutter, working in Collins Street for Bruce Bowls who saw it as his mission to straighten out this day dreaming worker. | We are very fortunate that the Bass Coast Artists Society has engaged Rob Matheson to come to Wonthaggi once a month to take a bunch of budding ceramicists through their paces. I am one of them and believe it or not – at age 61 was judged ‘Best Emerging Artist’ by ArtSpace. The Rescue Station has kindly allowed the use of its facilities for the classes. So – come on – why not join us? It is the second Saturday of the month from 10am to 4pm and only costs $50. For more information, email [email protected]. - Liane Arno |
It didn’t work – but Rob continued to enjoy his art and had his first exhibition when he was only 16 at The Glen Shopping Centre in Glen Waverly. He had thought at one stage of being a geologist and loved to contemplate how rocks were formed. From this came a love of painting landscapes. But not a love of painting in oil. He hated the medium as it was so slow to work with and he says he ended up making ‘mud pies’ most of the time. While he says he is patient generally when he is painting, he likes it to move along. Back then of course acrylic paints were chalky and nowhere near as sophisticated as they are today.
Soon afterwards he went as a Mormon missionary to Central America. As the plane descended, it was a culture shock to see the slums where people had made their homes from whatever they could lay their hands, even scraps of cardboard. It was the beginning of the end of his association with the Church. Here were people with so little money that their children would die of dysentery for the want of antibiotics being asked to pay a 10% tithe to the Church.
Back in Australia a childhood friend suggested he study ceramics with a friend of hers, Malcolm Boyd who had a studio in Essendon. Malcolm liked Rob immediately and told him, “You are welcome to play in clay with me.” Rob took to it like a duck to water. He went so often that in the end Malcolm had to ask him to find somewhere else and suggested the Gippsland Institute. It opened up a whole wealth of experience as they had a really interesting visual arts program. They allowed their students to do whatever they wanted. The Head of the Ceramics Department was, appropriately named, Hedley Potts who had Kioshi Eno working for him who was a fifth-generation Japanese potter.
As Rob gained so much from his studies, in contrast to his secondary school years, he got wind of the visual arts being closed down and was horrified. He gathered a group of like-minded students and staged a protest by locking themselves into the building. The visual arts building was a tin shed separated from the ultra-modern buildings of the main campus by a grove of pine trees. It lasted 48 hours and while it attracted some media attention and celebrity status amongst fellow students it didn’t change the relegation of visual arts program.
He learned so much – but it seems after being denied through his now relinquished church any thought of sex – his girlfriend’s choice of either her or ceramics won him over and he left his studies. It was disappointing as he had the opportunity of setting up a studio with fellow student Dragi Jankovic.
Soon afterwards he went as a Mormon missionary to Central America. As the plane descended, it was a culture shock to see the slums where people had made their homes from whatever they could lay their hands, even scraps of cardboard. It was the beginning of the end of his association with the Church. Here were people with so little money that their children would die of dysentery for the want of antibiotics being asked to pay a 10% tithe to the Church.
Back in Australia a childhood friend suggested he study ceramics with a friend of hers, Malcolm Boyd who had a studio in Essendon. Malcolm liked Rob immediately and told him, “You are welcome to play in clay with me.” Rob took to it like a duck to water. He went so often that in the end Malcolm had to ask him to find somewhere else and suggested the Gippsland Institute. It opened up a whole wealth of experience as they had a really interesting visual arts program. They allowed their students to do whatever they wanted. The Head of the Ceramics Department was, appropriately named, Hedley Potts who had Kioshi Eno working for him who was a fifth-generation Japanese potter.
As Rob gained so much from his studies, in contrast to his secondary school years, he got wind of the visual arts being closed down and was horrified. He gathered a group of like-minded students and staged a protest by locking themselves into the building. The visual arts building was a tin shed separated from the ultra-modern buildings of the main campus by a grove of pine trees. It lasted 48 hours and while it attracted some media attention and celebrity status amongst fellow students it didn’t change the relegation of visual arts program.
He learned so much – but it seems after being denied through his now relinquished church any thought of sex – his girlfriend’s choice of either her or ceramics won him over and he left his studies. It was disappointing as he had the opportunity of setting up a studio with fellow student Dragi Jankovic.
A recent work by Rob Matheson, partially wheel thrown and then coiled. In his early thirties, the girlfriend was gone and his soon to be wife came into his life and encouraged him to start using clay again. He attacked it in a frenzy and working out of a tin shed in Frankston created wheel thrown spherical forms fused with hand moulded animals. The designs proved so popular it was hard to keep up with demand.
His works went to international collections. He was asked to have a joint exhibition with Ken Done at the Bonython Gallery and even had one of his pieces acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia. For a 12-month period every single piece of his wildlife sculpture work was purchased by Cyril Stokes of the magnificent Forest Glade Gardens, Mount Macedon, for his conservatory. Rob still remembers the first time he visited Cyril and negotiated the long driveway to find the art collector behind a Louis XVI desk.
At the height of his career Rob moved up to the Gold Coast to support his wife’s son and found that his art works which were so well regarded in the south were not as popular so the family really struggled financially. Even more so when Rob’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. He started doing murals to make ends meet. He spent four months on Daydream Island creating a mural 20 metres long. For Questacon he was asked to make an animatronic crocodile comprising 200kg of clay and 100kg of plasticine. It travelled around Australia for seven years as part of an exhibition of Australian ‘nasties’ including a 2-metre diameter Sydney funnel web.
After Rob’s wife died, he came back south and moved to Tallangatta. It was 2005 and the drought was having a terrible effect on rural centres. The Hume Weir was at 2% capacity and Dartmouth at 16%. The town was given a grant of $90,000 because it was a high-risk centre which needed its spirits raised. Rob employed a young woman and ran a series of art projects out of a shopfront where people could learn about art at no cost. It not only healed the townspeople but was cathartic for Rob because it shifted his focus from having just lost his wife.
Then he was asked to produce 12 paintings of hotels in the Snowy Valleys Way as a promotional exercise. It took him two years to paint and a beautiful bound book was produced. Its preface states:
His works went to international collections. He was asked to have a joint exhibition with Ken Done at the Bonython Gallery and even had one of his pieces acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia. For a 12-month period every single piece of his wildlife sculpture work was purchased by Cyril Stokes of the magnificent Forest Glade Gardens, Mount Macedon, for his conservatory. Rob still remembers the first time he visited Cyril and negotiated the long driveway to find the art collector behind a Louis XVI desk.
At the height of his career Rob moved up to the Gold Coast to support his wife’s son and found that his art works which were so well regarded in the south were not as popular so the family really struggled financially. Even more so when Rob’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. He started doing murals to make ends meet. He spent four months on Daydream Island creating a mural 20 metres long. For Questacon he was asked to make an animatronic crocodile comprising 200kg of clay and 100kg of plasticine. It travelled around Australia for seven years as part of an exhibition of Australian ‘nasties’ including a 2-metre diameter Sydney funnel web.
After Rob’s wife died, he came back south and moved to Tallangatta. It was 2005 and the drought was having a terrible effect on rural centres. The Hume Weir was at 2% capacity and Dartmouth at 16%. The town was given a grant of $90,000 because it was a high-risk centre which needed its spirits raised. Rob employed a young woman and ran a series of art projects out of a shopfront where people could learn about art at no cost. It not only healed the townspeople but was cathartic for Rob because it shifted his focus from having just lost his wife.
Then he was asked to produce 12 paintings of hotels in the Snowy Valleys Way as a promotional exercise. It took him two years to paint and a beautiful bound book was produced. Its preface states:
"Rob has the eye of a hawk and the hand of a surgeon and every piece of work reflects Rob’s eye for exceptional detail and accuracy."
Rob stayed in the district for four years and made some wonderful friendships. He is proud to say that the shopfront operated for 15 years.
He has now settled in Frankston and conducts twice weekly lessons at the artist colony of Monsalvat. We are lucky to have Rob Matheson come to Wonthaggi once a month.
He has now settled in Frankston and conducts twice weekly lessons at the artist colony of Monsalvat. We are lucky to have Rob Matheson come to Wonthaggi once a month.