MELBOURNE - INNER CITY

One of my favourite activities when visiting Melbourne is to walk the inner city suburbs of Collingwood, Richmond and Fitzroy.
The city of Melbourne was laid out in 1837 and included a radius of 10 km from the CBD. I did not include any public piazzas or parks, reputedly to avoid any facilitation of protests or public loitering.
The huge surge in immigration brought about by the Gold Rush in the 1850s quickly outgrew the 10 km grid. The city spread to wealthy new suburbs, while the working classes settled in the inner suburbs of Richmond, Collingwood and Fitzroy. By the 1880’s these inner suburbs had become slums.
After World War II, there was increased migration from Europe, including from Italy, Greece, The Netherlands, and Germany. Many of whom took up residence in the inner suburbs. Later, in the migrants came from Yugoslavia, Turkey, Hungary and Lebanon.
In the 1960’s some of the old inner-city slums were bulldozed and the dislocated tenants were housed in high-rise blocks of state-owned apartments.
As manufacturing moved to the outer suburbs, industrial employment in the old working class inner suburbs declined, with these areas rapidly gentrifying in the 1990s and 2000s.
Although largely gentrified, there are still areas showing the history of these wonderful inner city suburbs of Melbourne.

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AUSTRALIAN ARTIST
I am an Australian artist working in Adelaide, South Australia. I paint mostly in oil, but occasionally use acrylic paints. Landscapes, seascapes, cityscapes, flower paintings and abstract paintings are included in my repertoire of work.

INSPIRATION FOR MY ART
As an Australian artist, my inspiration comes from whatever is around me at a particular time. As an example, following a recent trip to the mid north of South Australia, I produced a series of landscape paintings, which include the beautiful Eucalyptus trees and flowers from local gardens.

ARTIST STATEMENT
I have always loved colour. My paintings as a child were mostly large areas of very, very loud colour.
I paint because I love to. Taking delight in seeing what emerges from the canvas, and I still love colour.
Painting with other artists is a time to spend time with other human beings, without having to talk.
Painting alone is a special time to forget everything else, to get lost in the process of creativity, of colour and line, and light and dark.
During different stages of life I have made more time for painting. Now is one special time in my life when I can devote lots of time to painting.