DEPICTING LONELINESS AND ISOLATION – George Russel Drysdale: shades of abstract and surrealistic art

GEORGE RUSSELL DRYSDALE 1/3 – George Russell Drysdale was born in Bognor Regis (Sussex, England), and its family settled in Melbourne, Australia. A chance encounter an with artist and critic awakened him to the possibility of a career as an artist. He studied in Melbourne and made trips to Europe. By the time of his return, leaving Melbourne for Albury, next to the Australian outback and its inhabitants, painting next to the land hot and red, isolated, desolate and subtly threatening.

GEORGE RUSSELL DRYSDALE 2/3 – With paintings of drought-ravaged western New South Wales, and a series based on the derelict gold-mining town of Hill End, his reputation continued to grow. Its works convinced British critics that Australian artists had a distinctive vision of their own, exploring a physical and psychological landscape. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, he explored remote Australia and its inhabitants, painting deeply landscapes, intrinsically inhospitable and conveys the utter alienation of the figures he paints in the landscape.

GEORGE RUSSELL DRYSDALE 3/3 – He was married twice, and had a son and a daughter. He died in Sydney on a June of 1981. Its cremated remains were placed in the shade of a tree, by the church in the burial ground, beside historic St Paul’s Anglican Church, Kincumber. You can see more on Meeting Benches, looking for: GEORGE RUSSELL DRYSDALE (1912/1981), AUSTRALIAN PAINTER – Painting next to the land hot and red, isolated, desolate and subtly threatening