Artwork: Copse 1999
Artist: Roy Churcher (1933–2014)
Medium: oil on linen
Dimensions: 76 x 92cm
Acquisition: An acquisition of the ACT Legislative Assembly Art Advisory Committee, 2019
Asset no: OLA002034
About the Work
Like many of his generation, Churcher’s practice oscillated between abstraction and representation. He was dedicated to the depiction of landscape, and pursued this wherever he lived. In a prolific output from the early 1960s until his death in 2014, he meshed feelings for the world around him with dynamic, painterly, gestural expression. He drew his inspiration from the natural world, and often painted en plein air as is seen in the immediacy of this close quarters rendering of bushland at his rural property in Wamboin, where he lived from 1990.
About the Artist
Born in London in 1933, Churcher studied at Sutton School of Art and Slade School before coming to Australia in 1957. He was known as a painter and teacher, and was a foundation member and vice-president of the Contemporary Art Society of Queensland. Churcher lived and worked in various places over his lifetime. He moved with his Australian born wife Betty Churcher (who was studying at the RCA) to Brisbane in 1957, later spending time in London, Melbourne, Perth and, from 1990, on a rural property at Wamboin NSW, on the banks of the Yass River.
Roy Churcher died in 2014. An archive of his work has been established by his family and is managed by his son Paul at Wamboin. His work is represented in private collections; the Art Gallery of NSW; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; and the Art Gallery of Queensland, Brisbane.