At our last Art appreciation meeting we listened to Ivan Durrant talk about a painting he has on display in the Gallery. Ivan is always an entertaining speaker and is always willing to explain his passion for Art.  The painting in question is of two backpackers lying on a beach and entitled ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’.

In question time he was prevailed upon to make some comments about his reaction to his recent retrospective held at the National Gallery of Victoria.

Ivan has had a long and varied career in Art and a long association with this region.

​It is worth noting that the Gallery has a wonderful exhibition on at the moment in the Ledger Gallery.  A large number of Gallery owned works have been brought out and put on display. 

The Benalla Art Gallery is well worth a visit. 

Join us on Monday April 4th at 10 am for the ‘First Mondays’ artist talk by Adrienne Doig, which will close her stunning exhibition, It’s all about me!
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Neville Gibb

In April the U3A group was entertained by an instructive talk by Ivan Durrant concentrating on his friend Brett Whiteley, but also including references to other acquaintances of his in the art world.  Ivan, who has had a long career in art, is well respected and well known by many other artists.
 
It was immensely enjoyable to listen to someone who is familiar with well known figures who could relate stories about them.  Whiteley was a gregarious friendly person who Ivan knew quite well. Ivan made reference to many of Brett's works and explained their context in the art world.  He was quite generous in his praise of Whiteley and congratulated the Gallery on the current exhibition.
 
The basic point of Ivan's talk was that artists have many different drives and these need to be put into context.  Nervous energy is very important and may manifest itself in surprising ways.  It is important that we understand and tolerate things that artists may indulge in - drugs - sex - rock and roll - etc - because sometimes artists need to follow all their instincts in order to produce good art.  Sometimes artists live off their nervous energy when producing art.  Artists start off being teenagers and it is important that they keep the edgy feeling they had as teenagers - in essence stay teenagers for all their lives.  Artists have to explore all creative urges because no one knows in advance where it will lead them.  Feelings are important and artists just have to follow their feelings.
 
Sometimes, however, in following their feelings, creativity can lead some artists into bizarre circumstances.  Ivan was able to provide us with entertaining gossip concerning many people in the art world and to give us details of the interesting private lives of artists he had known. 
 
We hope Ivan can come back again for further lectures.
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Neville Gibb