BILLY TEA AT A QUIET LITTLE OASIS

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We are a husband and wife team who were painting the same types of subjects- landscapes, horses and Australian history long before we met. This is our story...
I was born Jennifer Jowett in 1955. Horses were my first love. I studied them and drew them from a very early age, (as soon as I could hold a pencil I was told) and so my skills of observation, and drawing developed and grew, sadly without with having any horses of my own, which compelled me to study and draw them all the more! (not very compatible with Maths lessons I discovered!) I soon rectified this situation when I began teaching, and experienced that marvelous relationship between horse and human I had always longed for. A deep love of the Australian bush manifested itself in my landscapes. Later a fascination with our unique Australian history has combined with the love of the bush, horses and the country way of life, and developed into forays into painting aspects of that history in both pastel and acrylic paint... applied with cardboard!”
I sold my first drawings in a little country 1-2 teacher Primary School, and later was within the top 10 art students in the 1973 NSW Higher School Certificate, but instead of going to Art School in Sydney (I did not want to be forced to paint contemporary art!) I chose a General Primary teaching career, which was cut short by marriage, ill health and raising 4 beautiful children, although through it all I kept painting, selling and winning numerous awards but that marriage ended in 1996.
Ron (born 1938) had always loved horses, but growing up in Sydney he had very limited exposure to them. His artistic talent was so evident at a young age that his craft teacher got him an apprenticeship with a sign-writer at 14 years and 10 months, and in the course of time he became a “legend in his time” in that trade according to what many of his peers have told me. (Ron, somewhat shy, never claimed that accolade himself!) Experimenting, trying new techniques and materials and pushing the boundaries of what paint could do, some of what he pioneered became standard practice in the trade. His experience as a sign-writer (back in the days before computers and ready –mixed paint) gave him a knowledge of paint, and the properties it could be made to have for different applications. He studied the Old Masters techniques, especially that of Rembrandt, and eventually began painting Australian historic scenes with horses in them. Although living and working in the city, he loved the outback and “went bush” as often as he could, fishing up “the Gulf”, or hunting pigs and ‘roos on outback properties with his mates, but he later turned to shooting with camera rather than rifle, collecting subject matter that inspired paintings. He associated with such well-known artists of the time as Doug Sealy and Les Graham. They jokingly named him “Rainmaker” because it always seemed to rain on their painting excursions! He had a sell-out exhibition in Kirribilli, and sold 2 paintings to the Prime Ministers Department.
Ron’s interest in things military began with his enlistment and then National Service. After attending an Artillery re-enactment in Victoria in 1993 or 1994, he combined these interests and painted a series of the Australian Artillery, two of which still hang in the Ingleburn RSL Club.
We discovered each other in an art gallery in Mackay, where we had been admiring each other’s work! In December 2000, five years later we married which means that we are in the delightful (and often frustrating!) position of being able to work together on our painting projects, sharing our passion for horses, history and nature, and exploring techniques to better express this in our paintings. Ron soon introduced me to oils and brushes (he was horrified at my cardboard technique!) and I learned a lot about the different qualities and applications of paint from Ron. The first series of paintings we did together was The Mount Britton Collection about an old gold-mining town near Nebo after being introduced to its fascinating history through work commissioned by Nebo Shire Council. (Now part of Isaac Regional Shire)
It was Ron who introduced me to The Australian Light Horse, an aspect of our history I had been totally unfamiliar with. In 2005 he suddenly decided he wanted to paint the Australian Light Horse - my initial ignorant reaction “why would you want to paint war?” - and we attended our first Australian Light Horse re-enactment together, and was lent 2 Spur Magazines and a book by General Chauvel’s daughter Elyne Mitchell LIGHT HORSE. The Story of Australia’s Mounted Troops. I was so moved by these true and fascinating stories that I felt compelled to paint them- that this was to be my destiny. The following year we moved to Warwick (not far from the NSW border) and we started painting the Australian Light Horse seriously and have been doing so ever since, with an emphasis on detailed historical accuracy, combined with well thought out design and technical painting skills, to achieve realistic authenticity in portraying the passion of that moment in time and history. These paintings are not so much about war itself, but more a portrayal of the relationships between man and horse and the environment in which they find themselves, between the troopers themselves and between the troopers and their enemy. Courage, compassion, perseverance, loyalty, sacrifice, mateship are all portrayed – beautiful attributes in very difficult and sometimes dreadful circumstances.
Ron and I have exhibited our Light Horse paintings annually at the Emu Gully Air and Land Spectacular from 2009 – 2013, and in the LEST WE FORGET exhibition in Morpeth Gallery from 2013 – 2017.
In 2014 we were asked by military artist Ian Coate, the Artist in Residence of the Australian SASR (Special Air Service Regiment), to paint the SAS using donkeys in Afghanistan which they did in 2002, for their Golden Jubilee exhibition. This painting was acquired by the SAS Historical Museum in WA, and I was present at the opening of the OUT OF THE SHADOWS exhibition in the Western Australian Museum in Perth, and along with other artists given a personal tour of the SAS Museum, which is the largest Australian Military Museum after the Australian War Memorial. https://iancoate.com/military%20SAS%20exhibit.html
Our work has been used in books, magazines, ANZAC memorials, and Memorabilia featuring the Charge of Beersheba. In fact our Limited Edition Medallion was featured on the Certificate to Commemorate the Charge of Beersheba in 1917 and presented to the Prime Ministers of Australia - Malcom Turnbull, Israel - Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Governor-General of New Zealand - Dame Patsy Reddy, by Mayor of Be’er-Sheva Mr Ruvik Danilovich on 31 October 2017 at the opening of the Be'er Sheva Anzac Memorial Centre.
In 2017, I and Military artist Ian Coate co-judged the Inaugral Harry Bell Memorial Art Prize to commemorate the Charge of Beersheba (http://beersheba100.com.au/schools/art-competition-winners-2017.html#!image001 ).
Also in 2017 I was invited to make two short presentations at events in the Victorian Parliament House regarding our painting "Chaaaarrge!" for the centenary of the battle and victorious charge of the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments on Beersheba in 1917.
In 2019 I sculpted (with Ron’s assistance) in clay the Marquette of “Ode to a Fallen Mate” to commemorate those involved and those who fell in the battle of Semakh on 25 September 1918, particularly honouring the Australian Aboriginal Light Horsemen of the 11th Light Horse Regiment fondly known by their mates as “The Queensland Black Watch”. This was digitally 3-D scanned in Brisbane, the CAD file sent to Israel where it was up-scaled and reproduced, then erected at the old Railway station in the grounds of Kinneret College where the battle occurred. I had the privilege of going to Israel with Barry Rogers (a Director of the Australian Light Horse Association and organizer of the tour and the sculpture) and some of the descendants of the Aboriginal Light Horsemen that fought there, and I was present at the ceremony when it was unveiled on the 25th September 2019 by the Australian Ambassador to Israel Chris Cannan and Mark Pollard, grandson of Jack Pollard, one of the Black Watch troopers 100 years earlier. It was his brother John that modelled for the sculpture. I hope to have the small clay sculpture reproduced as an edition in bronze soon.
Other more relaxing subjects are also represented in our artwork- birds, landscapes, flowers and portraits. My preferred mediums are soft pastel, and oils, but I do occasionally enjoy watercolour studies, although I have yet to explore this medium fully. Ron uses oils and a modern adaption of the “mixed technique” practised by the Old Dutch masters.
I am currently editing and illustrating an original WW1 Light Horse Trooper’s 2 books, never before published but compiled by him from his diaries on Gallipoli and during the desert campaign that toppled the Ottoman Empire and forever changed the history of the Middle East. I hope to have this finished soon and get back to more serious painting.