The Rare Book Fair is on in Melbourne again this week and we will be showing some important rare pictures.

Now in its 57th Edition, the Melbourne Rare Book Fair will feature rare and wonderful books, manuscripts, ephemera and from this gallery, rare watercolours, drawings and prints.

Exhibitors include the best antiquarian dealers from across Australia and New Zealand and from overseas.

Attendance is Free

Opens Thursday 30th July at 6pm at Wilson Hall, University of Melbourne.

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illustrated is the important Eileen Mayo poster Sturt's Desert Pea, Australia 1956

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Clifford Bayliss born 1912, Footscray and died 1989, London.  He attended the National Gallery School in the early 30s and could draw like Leonardo, was a bohemian and very poor.  He was an artist who worked continuously and obsessively throughout his life, but rarely exhibited.  A mentor to many younger artists at the National Gallery School including Sidney Nolan, John Sinclair and Oswald Hall.  He won the School's travelling scholarship in 1935 and left Australia, never to return. 

The scholarship put Bayliss on the front page of The Herald with the headline "Romance of Art Award - Nomad Winner"  and in every...

Monica Maughan 1933–2010 was a much-loved Australian actress with a career spanning over 50 years.  She also had a keen eye for art. This is the balance of the collection she put together with her husband Roly Ball.  Featured are 11 works by friend and neighbour, Rick Amor and a small selection of Indigenous works all collected before 1998.

Illustrated is  

Oil on canvas, 81 x 116.4 cm

100 works under $2,000

Most works are framed or can be framed in time for Christmas. I think there is great value in this Christmas exhibition. Click on an image to get more information and larger pictures.

illustrated  Tom Garrett  Tranquil Morning Monotype

We have a vast selection of works in stock from the early 20th Century. English and European. Many of the artists were associated with the Slade School of Fine Art or the Central School of Art in London, either as teachers or students. Here is a selection of some affordable and striking works from the period. Some were Australian artists.  Here is a selection

illustrated: Maidhi Howard McClintock, Bridge at Avignon 1922

English art dealer John Barkes is visiting Melbourne for the first time in five years. To coincide with his visit we are displaying a selection of works he has bought over the last 30 years.

John has been a regular traveller to St Petersburg since 1993 and more recently, Crimea, Siberia and Ukraine, visiting over 800 artist studios across the old SOVIET UNION. As one of the first western art dealers to go there, he has introduced us to Soviet life behind the iron curtain as depicted through oil sketches by leading St Petersburg and Ukrainian artists of the time.

Gallery Hours: Tues...

Joe and Zoe Sullivan came in to my Armadale gallery in 1985 after reading our advertisement in The Age for an exhibition of Early Australian Watercolours and Drawings, the first of many. They bought two works by little known artists.  We became great friends over the years as they followed me to Carlton and continued to fill their house with good pictures.
Passing on the passion to their children and grandchildren many of the works have stayed in the family but here are the few that got away.

illustrated: Donald Friend, Omu Wearing Harlequin Trousers 1953

24th to the 26th October 2024

presented by ANZAAB with the support of the University of Sydney

Hours Thurs 6-9 pm, Fri 10-5 pm,  Sat 10-4 pm

100 Works priced under $2,000

Selection of fine paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture by some of our favourite artists dating from 1780s to 2023, displayed in chronological order

All works are framed unless stated otherwise

Feature illustrations:  Elyse Lord and Matthew Perceval

Highlights include:

three important early works by Charles Blackman;

landscapes and portraits from the Boyd and Perceval families;

paintings by Douglas Dundas and John D. Moore from the estate of Sir Howard and Lady Beale; 

Francis Lymburner paintings from an estate in London where they were acquired in the 1950s;

three important drawings by Noel Counihan; and

other attractive modern works by Ludmilla Meillerts, Roland Wakelin, Frank Medworth, George Duncan, Sidney Nolan, Vic O'Connor and Clifford Bayliss.

It is fair to say that Peter Trusler's paintings for the book Birds of Australian Gardens are revolutionary, and rank among the finest Australian natural history paintings ever done. He cleverly placed his subjects in urban, domestic and occasionally mundane environments, exactly where many of our native birds now live. 

These are the original watercolours for Birds of Australian Gardens and were part of the National Bank Collection of Modern Art from 1980 until 2022. 

We have joined forces with Andrew Isles Natural History Books in the promotion of these paintings

We have a few still available but in storage so contact us...

100 works priced under $2,000

Featuring paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints and sculptures in chronological order

Gallery hours  in January - By appointment

Continues through Summer

Jeff Ferris’ sharp-focus realist works have been remarkably popular at the Gallery ever since our first show back in 2008. Fans of fellow Australian artist, the late Jeffrey Smart, often remark that the striking style of Ferris’ pieces is reminiscent of Smart’s.  In fact, the pair used to share correspondence, and Smart was a great admirer of Ferris’, imploring in a 1983 letter that Ferris was “far too modest about [his] work.  The landscape is splendid with a marvelous mood to it and a really good sky…”.

As you'll appreciate from the following explanation by Ferris of his motivation for producing...

A selection of paintings, prints and photographs
acquired by Peter Brown over the last 60 years

illustrated  Lionel Lindsay,  Bacchanal 1925

Photographs  1972-2021

Peter Brown only ever uses a fixed lens and composes the image before he takes the shot. He doesn’t like cropping or excessive editing.  

From 1972 to 2000 he used a Nikkorrmat camera he bought in Singapore in 1972.  He switched to a Nikon FM2 with a 55 mm lens. In 2015 he changed to a Nikon D600.

They are all stamped and numbered 1/10 on reverse. The photographer will print additional images as required. Maximum 10.  

So Hurry!

Peter Brown adopts the philosophy that his art is a ‘journey of discovery’ taking him to all corners of the...

Sydney Modern Artists  

This is a selection of artists working in Sydney between 1930s -1960s. These artists have all appeared in our Modern catalogues over the last 38 years.

Illustrated: George Duncan,  Bavaria  1936

Features include two Canberra landscapes painted just before the flooding of Lake Burley Griffin; an early Nude drawing by Frank Hinder shortly after his return from study in America

Featuring a collection of works from our Modern pages

The gallery is open Tuesday and Thursdays, 10-5 pm, and intermittently at other times while we prepare our next exhibition which will be Early Australian Watercolour and Drawings.

Contact Bridget on 0419 306593 or email the gallery for an appointment at other times.

When I was a child my contented father showed me the mystery of painting with water-colors. It was revelatory the way in which he swished the red sable Windsor and Newton purest camel-hair or red sable brushes into a freshly rinsed Pura milk bottle and diluted my holiest colors such as Veridian Green and Alizaron Crimson and the most remarkable one of the whole spectrum - French Ultra Marine.

I sat so peacefully with him wherever I went, which was everywhere there was to go in Whittlesea, and I, at ten years of age would watch him blend in the...

I visited Mary recently and was rewarded with the opportunity to look through a box of drawings I hadn't seen before. Delighted, It took me an hour to select a collection to take away. Here they are.

25 unframed watercolours and drawings from between 1971-2015 depicting Melbourne life as observed by Mary Hammond while shopping in Richmond, Northcote or Fairfield and while watching the local golfers.

Bridget McDonnell 2020

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An exhibition featuring landscapes  1988-2014

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View Invitation here

Fiftly paintings and oil sketches direct from the atists' studios in St. Petersburg 

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View Artist Biographies