JACK, KENNETH (1924-2006)

"Forgotten Town, Silverton" (1967)
Oil on board
28 x 44cm
Signed lower left
*private collection, Sydney
 
Kenneth William David Jack AM MBE RWS was an Australian watercolour artist who specialised in painting the images of an almost forgotten outback life; old mine workings, abandoned ghost towns, decaying farm buildings. In 1977 he was elected to The Royal Watercolour Society and in 1982 was awarded the MBE, and the Order of Australia (AM) followed in 1987. Jack studied at the Melbourne Technical College (RMIT) before the War intervened. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force as a survey draughtsman, and was stationed in New Guinea, Labuan & North Borneo. During this time he produced approximately 500 original artworks, some which were published in the RAAF Logs & Wings magazine. On his return to Australia, he began an intense love affair with the Australian Outback which would last the rest of his life. Working predominantly in oil, acrylic, watercolour and linocut, Jack untertook numerous extended expeditions into the Outback, particularly to his beloved Flinder Ranges and Kimberley Ranges in South Australia. Between the 1940s and 1970s, Jack was one of Australia’s most respected and prolific landscape painters, winning numerous prizes including the Crouch the Trustees Watercolour Prize, The Wynne Prize, Tattersall's Art Award and the Camberwell Rotary Art Prize. He exhibited widely and is represented in many important national collections and institutions, including the AGNSW, AGSA, QAGOMA, AGWA & Victoria & Albert Museum in London.