Australia has not witnessed many of its own distinctive schools of art. Possibly the cultural cringe so inhibited our values of what was worthwhile in art, that it influenced us to always be looking towards European trends for our own validation. Regardless of the reason, it becomes all the more tragic when a very fine school of art was developed in Melbourne in the early part of last century, only to be ignored and almost forgotten by our art history books. The Meldrum school of tonalist painting was particularly vibrant during the 1920s to 1950s in Melbourne and it is from this school of painting that these six fine painters have developed.

The Meldrum School of painting was established in 1915 by an irascible, small Scotsman, Max Meldrum. He developed a technique of painting that inspired many followers and resulted in a school of art that followed this particular approach to painting. Meldrum’s method was based on first learning ‘to see’ and only then, could you begin to apply paint. ‘To see’ completely objectively was to see without emotion or memory clouding your perception. Once you learnt to see objectively, then you could start to paint. Meldrum ranked impressions that came to the eye in order of tone, shape and colour and it was tone that he considered the most critical factor in painting. In very simplistic terms he taught his students to apply paint in patches of the tonal value that corresponded to the tone they actually saw. Meldrum was adamant that the painting must be from life. The six painters exhibiting today paint from life – either plein air or from life models in the studio.

Artists who followed the Meldrum method included some of the pre-eminent artists of the early 20th century. Percy Leason, Colin Colahan, Clarice Beckett, Justus Jorgensen, Archie and Amalie Colquhoun, Richard McCann, Polly Hurry, and A.E. Newbury were among the passionate exponents of the method. These painters were outstanding practitioners of this approach and developed figurative and landscape paintings to a new level. Their work resulted in Australians seeing their landscape in a new light. (No pun) In many ways their work was the forerunner to the Australian landscapes painted by the modernists, as they pared down extraneous detail to evoke simple, beautiful figures and landscape. The Meldrum school of tonalist painters continued to the next generation with William Dargie, (b 1912) Hayward Veal, (b 1913)* Ron Crawford, (b 1915) Graham Moore (b 1916) Peter Glass, (b 1917), Russell Foreman, (b 1921) Alan Martin, (b 1923) and Graeme Inson, (b 1923) among many others. *( It is interesting to know that Hayward Veal lived in England in the 1950s and taught Rolf Harris, who may be remembered for the fast ‘tonal’ paintings he did on his TV shows.)

The Light Factory Gallery is proud to exhibit these six painters, who continue the principles developed from the original Meldrum School of Painting. Each painter has at various times studied with artist, David Moore, who was in turn influenced by his father, Grahame Moore and mentor, William Dargie. Each of these six painters has used the principles of observing tone, shape and colour and each of them has employed the broad painterly approach. However they have taken the method one step further in their vigorous exploration of colour along with their confident application of paint and pastel. Meldrum frequently painted in Eltham and lived here in 1921/22. Here he painted landscapes, simplifying them and refining the process of tonalist painting that consolidated his reputation. It is fitting that Australian Tonalist painting has returned to the Eltham roots from where it originally flourished.

Director Margot Tasca

The Tonalists