"O'Reilley's Pumpkin Picking Team" 51 x 62 cm Oil on Board
Eris Fleming was born at Inverell in 1943, the fifth
son in a family of nine boys. He is of Irish-French extraction. His early years
were spent on a farm outside Delungra in north western New South Wales. In this
environment, rabbiting, horses, picking up dead wool, skinning snakes and
shanghais were serious ways to get through the day. He attended a one teacher
school at Boonda-near Myall Creak-where marbles during school hours and horse
racing after school, were major preoccupations and a source of serious
disputations. He attended Delungra public school for several years-where he
learnt that he couldn't fight-but could add up and takeaway and spell a little.
Departing the large, sometimes tumultuous family environment, he attended
boarding school in Sydney before inadvertently wandering down the wrong
track-studying medicine at Sydney University-graduating in 1966.
From his early kindergarten/plasticine/crayon days,
Eris had a serious fascination with painting and drawing. Materials were almost
unprocurable at that time in the bush."Art" at that time was
considered a very poor career decision indeed. For a young man from his
background art was considered by all authoritive figures to be a "no
go" area. Notwithstanding, Eris continued to paint, despite the bold
assertion that "artists are as poor as church mice." After
graduation, he worked as a GP in both large and small country towns of N.S.W.
and Victoria. He worked briefly for the N.S.W. Health Department before
resigning in order to pursue more fully, the alleged lifestyle of a
"church mouse."
Eris held his first major one-man exhibition in
Brisbane in 1972. Since then he has enjoyed successful one-man and mixed
exhibitions in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and other major centers in Australia.
In 1966, Eris married Judith-Ann McManamey. In 1975,
they moved from Bathurst to a 200 acre farm at Bakers Swamp. The farm is at the
base of the Catombal Range in the Wellington Valley, just 24 kilometres from
Wellington. On the farm there are cattle, who are supposed to get fat and a
small number of old, lazy horses who do get fat. Eris and Judith-Ann have three
sons, who, having graduated from university, are now busy pursuing their own
respective careers. Judith-Ann has been busy teaching music for the past twenty
years. On the Bakers Swamp farm, Eris created and repaired, with the aid of
several not particularly helpful friends, a gallery and then a studio. He also
rebuilt parts of the old farm house, which dates back to the 1880's. At home,
Eris is a studio-dweller working from sketchbook drawings and notes. The
sketchbooks are filled during extensive excursions throughout the outback of
Australia. The two main sources for his work are the sketchbooks and the memory
of people, places and happenings. The focus of his paintings is often around
the fringe dwellers of outback society and their eccentricities. His endeavour
is to catch the spirit of these people and their landscape with all its
idiosyncrasies. A strong undercurrent of dry humour finds its way into many of
his works. Eris has a great interest in the history of the outback and the
history of art itself. He reads extensively, especially biographies of the past
greats, whether from Europe, America or Australia. He is drawn especially to
the works of the Australian artists - Drysdale and Dobell, and the European
artists, Chagall, Bonnard and Soutine. Eris works almost exclusively in oils,
pallete knives being his most favoured tool. He prepares his own canvases and
panels. He is represented in many collections both in Australia and overseas.
He does not like labels but if pressed would call himself a colourist, painting
things and places Australian.
“RUMOUR,
GOSSIP, INNUENDO”
Artist:
Nationally renowned Eris Fleming
Exhibition opens: Friday 7
September 2012 at 6.00 pm
Exhibition runs: 7 September – 7 October
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