Charles Blackman

Charles Blackman
Australian, born 1928

Joy Hester's house 1955
oil on paper on composition board
Geelong Gallery
Gift of Robin Ferry, 2006

Joy Hester’s house belongs to a series of paintings Blackman created in the Avonsleigh district of central-eastern, Victoria (where he lived for a six-month period). Here, Blackman turned to the magic of the Moonlit countryside for inspiration:

This was the first time ever in my life that I actually lived in the country. And the Moon: I painted all day and the only time I went for a walk it was night. The landscape in Moonlight is the subject. We always chose to go to the city at night because it was Moonlit and you had to walk four miles. You would walk home in that Moonlight; no one had a torch. I was very haunted by it. The Moonlight is a very haunting kind of thing ...