WHEN YOU CAN'T SAY IT - CREATE IT!
Party People comprises works created over many years.
In 2004 Phyllis embarked on a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at the Newcastle University. During her first year she was involved in a research and documentary exercise. A local Maitland historian and writer, Cynthia Hunter, launched her book, Time Gentlemen Please, at Maitland Regional Art Gallery. The book focused detailed the history of pubs in the Maitland district. Local artists were asked to contribute by making paintings to accompany the presentation. The theme of the exhibition was Pub Culture and Phyllis was asked to contribute.
Talking about her works created for Pub Culture, Phyllis said, “I think that people who frequent pubs have a unique character. In my paintings I was intent on showing this.”
Phyllis’s preparation involved much research, and she used photography to build up her supply of images of hotel inhabitants and interiors. She also chose Russell Drysdale’s work as an influence saying "His work captures the spirit of the Australian working class who still frequent the pubs in inland country towns in Australia".
Drysdale’s painting, Moody’s Pub (1941), was one of many of Drysdale’s artworks that focus on the subject of pubs.
Most of Phyllis’s research involved visits to pubs in towns surrounding Maitland, such as Hinton, Gresford, Neath, Paterson and Morpeth. Many of the drinkers that she painted in the Pub Culture series wear wide-brimmed hats and work clothes due to the predominance of farming of farming in these areas. Phyllis commented that wide brimmed hats help to identify the Australian farmer, or as some people say, “people from the bush.”
She said, “Drysdale was fond of giving the country people in his paintings his own preconceived idea of their identity as a class of people. Sometimes he painted many unflattering full-length portraits of outback people. Many of the women painted look thick and heavy, and wear shapeless clothes and down-trodden shoes.”
An example of one of these paintings is Woman in a Landscape (1945).
Phyllis continues”, Although Drysdale’s intention was to show the strong character of these people existing in arid surroundings, many outback people found them insulting. Some country people commented that the type of clothing was inappropriate, and they could not identify with the idea of country women being dressed like that.”