Popular outback painter Max Mannix has had 16 exhibitions at Articles Fine Art Gallery in Stanwell Park during the past 40 years.
“It’s a good gallery,” Max tells 2508 over the phone, ahead of his new one-man show in June.
Max will have “50-plus” paintings on show, the result of 12 to 18 months work at his home studio in Kenthurst.
Fans of Max’s work can expect more paintings inspired by “the usual memories of when I was younger, working in the outback, droving, yard building and mustering camps and so on”.
Now 82, and still painting seven days a week, Max spent the first half of his life gathering material for the second half.
Born in country Victoria in 1939, he left home at 16 to work in the outback – mustering, shearing and fencing. For seven years he ran a cattle station in south-west Queensland, in a dry area known as Heart-Break Corner.
His paintings are all inspired by this time.
“If I didn’t do the first one, I wouldn’t be doing the second one,” Max says of his two careers.
The colours in his paintings are bold and striking, like the land itself.
“Such a strong colours – they really are. The sky is blue. There’s hardly ever a cloud in the sky. Most of the time where we were, we were living in drought conditions.
“It’s fairly arid sort of country.”
A thin black dog with white ribs shows up in many scenes.
“Hungry as a drover’s dog he is,” Max says, with a laugh. “He’s in good working condition, he’s in most of my paintings.
“Occasionally I put in a little red Yorkie, a largish sort of Yorkie. We used to have one once and she would always go to work with me every morning. And then she’d go to sleep at the foot of the easel and stay there most of the day.
“My favourite paintings are mostly streetfronts or horse racing. If it’s busy – I love busy. I like a lot of people in the paintings, doing things – that’s what I like about it, the activity at all.”
Max paints entirely from memory. The way of life and the people he knew are long gone.
“I’ve never ever been back there,” he says.
“I’ve got a good power of recall.
“I like to put that little bit of humour in most of my paintings.
“What I’m finding is it’s just a social comment on me. It’s me growing up and all those years working, working up there in the outback.
“I take it very seriously, even though a lot of them are light-hearted in manner.”
Max describes his humour as “schadenfreude, simple as that”.
“You can see humour in somebody’s misfortune, that’s what it means. But as long as you’re able to laugh at yourself, I think that’s the most important thing.”
Max Mannix will attend the exhibition opening party on Saturday, 5 June 2021. From noon, there’ll be champagne, savouries and live music by Fiddledance Bush Band. The show ends on 14 June. For more information, call Articles Fine Art Gallery on 4294 2491.