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Australian art

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Title

Dry weather

(circa 1912)

Artist

Blamire Young

Australia

1862 - 1935

An image of Dry weather by Blamire Young

About

"When the mood took him, he surrounded himself with saucers brimming with pure colour ... Swiftly he would cover a sheet of paper with his great general tint. Into this before it was dry he would, in the most dexterous fashion, introduce some design out of his sketchbook. He would with the colour still wet, tilt the paper this way and that, letting the wash settle into forms which he would later utilise. His long experiments had given him a dexterity in the use of all sorts of inventions in the practise of water-colour which has certainly never been equalled by any Australian water-colourist."

Julian Ashton, 1917

Young was a leading practitioner in watercolour in Melbourne in the first decades of the twentieth century. His experimental approach using washing, scraping and rubbing back of the paper, highlights the staining and dilation inherent in the watercolour medium, especially when used in large formats. In Dry weather, he handles the massive forms of the landscape by the use of transparent layers to create an illusion of depth - recalling traditional Chinese watercolour in his use of non-linear space.

Details

Date

(circa 1912)

Media category

Watercolour

Materials used

watercolour on paper

Dimensions

56.0 x 76.8 cm sight; 75.1 x 84.7 x 3.0 cm frame

Signature & date

Signed l.r., brown watercolour "BLAMIRE YOUNG". Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 1912

Location

Not on display

Accession number

123

Reproduction requests

Artist information

Blamire Young

Works in the collection

12

Shown in 16 exhibitions

Exhibition history

Referenced in 23 publications

Bibliography

Art Gallery of New South Wales, A selection of eighty-two reproductions mainly from the Australian collection and including examples from the British, French and Dutch [Art Gallery of New South Wales], Sydney, 1959, (illus.). cat.no. 14

Australian Exhibition Commission, Catalogue: British Empire Exhibition (Wembley) 1924, 1924, 95. no catalogue numbers; Lent by the Trustees of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales

Herbert Badham, A gallery of Australian art, 'Introduction', pg. v-vii., Sydney, 1954, xiv, illus.. plate no. 77

Herbert Badham, A study of Australian art, Sydney, 1949. plate no. 56

Ian Burn, National life and landscape - Australian painting 1900-1940, 'Art versus Nature', pg. 38-51, Sydney, 1990, 42 (colour illus.). plate no. 26

Jean Campbell, Australian watercolour painters: 1780 to the present day, 'The twentieth century to 1914', pg. 92-109, Sydney, 1989, 94 (colour illus.).

Jean Campbell, Australian watercolour painters 1780-1980, Adelaide, 1983, 91 (colour illus.).

Jane de Teliga, Australian images: Prints, drawings and watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1979, 10.

Elly Fink, The art of Blamire Young, Sydney, 1983, 19 (colour illus.). cat.no. 15

Gavin Fry, Parallel visions: works from the Australian collection, 'J.J. Hilder / Blamire Young / Norman Lindsay', pg. 72-87, Sydney, 2002, 75, 77 (colour illus.), 146, 147.

Anne Gray, Australia, 'Art nation: Australian landscape 1880-1920', pg. 146-183, London, 2013, 175 (colour illus.). cat.no. 115

Elioth Gruner (Organiser), Catalogue of an exhibition of the works of Australian artists, Sydney, 1923. cat.no. 145; Room VIII (Water Colours); not paginated

Elioth Gruner (Organiser), The exhibition of Australian art to be held at the galleries of the Royal Academy London, 1923, Sydney, 1923. cat.no. 177; not paginated

Hendrik Kolenberg, Twentieth century Australian watercolours from the collection, Sydney, 1989. cat.no. 82

Hendrik Kolenberg, Australian watercolours 1880s to 1990s, Sydney, 1995, 36 (colour illus.), 116-117. cat.no. 24

Elwyn Lynn, The Australian landscape and its artists, Rushcutters Bay, 1977, 56 (colour illus.).

Ursula Prunster and Edmund Capon AM, OBE, J.J. Hilder and contemporaries, Sydney, 1981, illus.. cat.no. 34

Ron Radford, Our country: Australian Federation landscape 1900-1914, 'Introduction', pg. 16-22, Adelaide, 2001, 13 (colour illus.), 158.

Bernard Smith, 100 years of Australian painting, 'Foreword', pg. 2-4, Sydney, 1948, 13. watercolours cat.no. 7

Bernard William Smith, Australian painting 1788-1970, South Melbourne, 1971, 107 (illus.). plate no. 71

Daniel Thomas, Art and Australia, 'Australian collection', pg. 52-62, Sydney, Jul 1972, 54 (illus.).

Trustees of the National Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australian watercolours from the National Art Gallery collection 1836 to 1946, Sydney, 1946, 5, 9. cat.no. 18

Editor Unknown (Editor), The Christian Science monitor, 'The home forum', page unknown, Boston, 14 Jan 1956, page unknown (illus.).