Portrait study of the artist's mother

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, of Greek parentage, John Philippides is a Blue Mountains-based artist, who trained at the Academies of Fine Arts in Rome and Venice in the mid 1960s, before migrating to Australia in 1969. He has exhibited since the mid 1970s, including several solo exhibitions in Italy in recent years. Two of his drawings were selected to become part of the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings in 2001 and he was a finalist in the Dobell Prize for Drawing in 2007. Philippides is a painter, draughtsman and has taught art in New South Wales. In 2003 he resigned from teaching to dedicate himself full-time to his art.