Saturday 2 February 2013

Norman Lindsay

I can remember really enjoying The Magic Pudding as a child!   However, at that time, I didn't know very much about Norman Lindsay, and in particular wasn't aware of the fact that he liked to paint voluptuous nudes!    Even though this particular omission was rectified in later life, when we visited his former house at Faulconbridge - now a museum  -  I was able to fill in some of the remaining details of his life and work of which I had previously been unaware.

The house contains an impressive collection of his works, especially his paintings.    It also contains a number of large model sailing vessels, which he built for relaxation.  The meticulous detail of these is really quite amazing.  

Outside are a number of his statues.   The painting studio was closed, but we joined a short tour which included admission to the etching studio.  This left us with a great respect for the time and effort that Lindsay put into the creation of his etchings (consistent, I suppose, to his approach in constructing the model sailing ships) and just as much respect for the efforts of his second wife, Rose, who laboured long and hard printing them - a task in which Lindsay himself apparently didn't participate.




We finished up with coffee and scones at Lindsay's Cafe, which is within the grounds.




1 comment:

  1. I bought a Folio Society edition of MP last month to educate American grand daughter in Australiana (boxed set with 3 other similar vintage Oz (BB, SP & CP, and MHW).

    ReplyDelete