LOCAL LIFE
Greg Hansell
Their permanence has been tested to the ultimate rating .
Greg Hansell ’ s 17-year career at an apprentice and then senior technician with Telecom ( nee PMG ) ended in 1980 when he sold his successful entry in Australia ’ s foremost landscape competition , the Wynne Prize .
“ My entry was a close-up of an aged corrugated-iron wall , and I sold it to a very kind mate for which I was most thankful ,” Greg said .
“ But what really gave me the impetus to take up art fulltime was that a few days later , the great Jeffrey Smart , one of this country ’ s most revered artists , spied it hanging in the Art Gallery of NSW and told the curator he wanted to buy it .
“ To say I was chuffed would be a major understatement , but I explained it was already sold and that I couldn ’ t do the dirty on my friend .
“ But Jeffrey Smart ’ s interest in my work was all the encouragement I needed to hand in my resignation at Telecom and commence a new career as an artist .”
That road to art began in the early 70s when he was hospitalised with eczema .
“ I can ’ t really remember what led to it , but the doctor looking after me told me , ‘ you should study something for the love of it ’ – and so I did ,” Greg said .
“ I took up a hobby art course at St George Evening College and in ’ 75 , I commenced that Art Certificate class at St George Tech where I studied until 1980
and that auspicious episode with that year ’ s Wynn Prize .”
And t ’ was a good move because he has certainly made a success of his art .
Greg is a Fellow of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales , and his paintings are represented in corporate and academic collections .
He has been a Wynn Prize finalist on 18 occasions , a finalist in an Archibald Prize , four times finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize and has twice won the Mosman Art Prize . In 2001 , Greg was awarded a Centenary of Federation Medal “ for services to community arts and Windsor Library ”.
Greg Hansell was born in Goulburn on August 23 , 1949 , and grew up in the little village of Nerriga on the Southern Tablelands where his parents , Frank and Alma , owned a sheep property .
In 1957 the family moved to a sheep and wheat property at Collingullie , near Wagga Wagga , and he did the readin ’, ‘ ritin ’ and ‘ rithmetic caper until completing Year 10 at Wagga ’ s Christian Brothers Boys High .
As a young child and teenager , Greg loved getting outdoors , going on exploration walks through the majestic gorge country when at Nerriga and then playing rugby league and Aussie Rules when the family made the move to Wagga Wagga .
“ I ’ m sure those walks through the rugged countryside when I was a young kid instilled in me a love of the bush and were my first steps towards my future career as a landscape artist ,” Greg said .
Greg and his longtime partner , Yvonne – they met soon after he moved to the Big Smoke - now live on the historic Peninsula area at Windsor .
Their home , Tara , was built in 1890 and many of the sites he has painted are within walking distance from his studio overlooking the Hawkesbury River .
Greg ’ s has recently published a superb , 198-page full-gloss book , The Purity of Australian Light , which depicts many of his works , and they can be purchased at art galleries around the country .
At the behest of renowned art curator , historian and publisher , Lou Klepac OAM – he published The Purity of Australian Light .
Greg is now halfway through a 25-work assignment , creating small landscapes on 20cms x 25cms pastel boards .
Greg Hansell ’ s self-portrait earned a place as a finalist in the 1988 Archibald prize . Greg painted the portrait using his favoured handmade earth pastels .
“ To say I am chuffed to have Lou ask me to complete the task would be an understatement ,” Greg said .
“ Lou ’ s Beagle Press has previously published catalogues and books on the works of many of the great Australian artists such as Hans Heysen , Brett Whitely and Russell Drysdale to name but a few .”
Those of us who have had the privilege and delight in witnessing Greg Hansell ’ s many works over the past 30 years believe he is in good company .
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THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT theindependentmagazine . com . au ISSUE 167 // APRIL 2024 7