Artist inspiration and artist influences. No biographies, dates or scholarly research here - this is a personal response to the work of Tom Roberts by Australian artist Fiona Morgan.

Tom Roberts is a revered figure in Australian painting. For me, he's a painter who has command of this country's subtle colours and a spine tingling ability to capture typical Australian light. This is something I wish to accomplish myself.

He was a versatile painter, being accomplished in every genre. Although he is most well known for his landscapes, portraiture was his bread and butter.

If you get the chance to see his work in the real world, take it. He was an exceptionally technically talented painter. The sort of talent that is part natural and part hard won by pushing your skill boundaries every single day. Yes, he really was that good. Goosebumps.

After four years’ study in Europe he returned to Melbourne and was the lynchpin of Australian open air impressionist landscape painting. For encouraging and mentoring and championing Australian Impressionism, he is known as the father of Australian landscape painting. What a legacy!

 Part of what I enjoy about his works are his snapshot-paintings of his era. Telling the stories of life in that time.

Especially cheeky stories that get beneath the Victorian era veneer of endless perfection.

His paintings of his era; of bushrangers, hold ups, pioneering life, sheering sheep, clearing the land - tapped straight into a nationalistic self image. They captured the public imagination. They still do. Many of his paintings are considered to have been creators of Australia's self image, of defining a common identity. At least if you were white and male.

While many artists realise that recording the times they live in, being a memorialist, is an important function of art, not many accomplish this in the way that Tom Roberts did. His ability to create far more than just snapshots or pretty pictures, that story telling ability of the sort that unites a community - this is what I really admire. The creation of iconic images.

More Tom Roberts links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Roberts

The Creative Cauldron series of posts explores and showcases the visual styles, techniques, attitudes, ideas, artists and paintings that have had the most impact on me. 

The rest of the series is accessible via the Creative Cauldron page. Have a meander if you please, and remember to check out my artworks on Flickr, and have an insider peek at life as an artist on Facebook.