Irvine Homer

Born, 1919 in New Lambton, New South Wales, Australia. Died, 1980

From the catalogue Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952 - 1977 (Commonwealth Art Gallery, London, 1 June - 3 July 1977): “Born in New Lambton, New South Wales. Irvine Homer is a naive, untrained painter who began to paint in his thirties as a form of therapy to delay the onset of a crippling disease. His first works were simple flower designs and landscapes often executed on cheap dinner plates but with encouragement from the late Sir William Dobell he began using hardboard as a suppport. Homer’s subjects then became childhood memories and vividly recall events from the past, of life in the outback during the depression when he had a variety of jobs often interpreted with a critical but sympathetic eye. His control of the oil medium developed and a journey along the Queensland coast resulted in a series of tranquil landscapes from which anecdote is absent. But above all Homer is an interpreter of the Australian bush - that intractable landscape, neither enemy not friend, which can probably best be overcome by humour.

Irvine Homer’s first exhibition, small in the number of paintings, was held in 1959 at the Newcastle City Art Gallery; it marked the beginning of a reputation which has grown steadiuly and his small output has always found eager buyers. In 1975 the Newcastle City Art Gallery held a retrospective of about seventy of his paintings which confirmed the artist’s position as one of Australia’s most admired naive artists.”

»  Commonwealth Artists of Fame 1952 - 1977 - catalogue

Catalogue relating to an exhibition, 1977