The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans by Shane Fitzgerald

the Sentient

Landscape

The Art of Peter Indans

Rockhampton Art Gallery

the Sentient

Landscape

The Art of Peter Indans

PatricK Connor • SHANE FITZGERALD • Gavin FRY • Mark Svendsen Rockhampton Art Gallery

inside cover:

Pumpkin Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;1999 (detail) oil on canvas 82.0 x 131.0 cm Collection, Lyn and Andrew McClelland right: Peter Indans in his studio Photographer: unknown

Pe t e r i s V i k tor s ( K r au k l i s ) I n da n s 1947 – 2011

“

My Doncaster no longer exists. My Latvia never existed. My parents’ Latvia is gone, as are they. My Australia is part of me. The mountain is woven into my perceptions of self and takes on the significance I have given it. Do I sense its power or do I wish it? The mountain will last another hundred million years, my mountain will die with me, but the mountain is also now part of my son Carl, probably because of my passion. But his mountain, his Zilzie, are now part of his concept of self.

”

Publisher

Exhibition Curator

Rockhampton Art Gallery 62 Victoria Parade, Rockhampton PO Box 1860, Rockhampton, Queensland 4700 Australia gallery@rrc.qld.gov.au +61 7 4936 8248

Shane Fitzgerald

ÂŠ Rockhampton Art Gallery and the authors 2011

Shane Fitzgerald | Mark Svendsen | Gavin Fry | Thomas Degotardi | Patricia Dunn

This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced without prior written permission of the copyright owners. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Publisher. Every attempt has been made to locate the owners of copyright of all images reproduced in this publication. The Publisher would be grateful to hear from any reader with further information. Copyright for the text in this publication is held by Rockhampton Art Gallery and the authors.

Gavin Fry | Patrick Connor | Mark Svendsen

Registration team

Publication design and development Shane Fitzgerald | Thomas Degotardi Printing: City Printing Works, Rockhampton Typeset in 10pt on 12pt Adobe Garamond Pro (text) Perpetua Titling MT (titles) Colour management: Thomas Degotardi Photography: All photography by Thomas Degotardi and Shane Fitzgerald unless otherwise noted.

ISBN 978-0-9586383-5-7 (pbk.)

Exhibition management and design

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

Shane Fitzgerald | Thomas Degotardi

The Sentient Landscape the art of Peter Indans Rockhampton Art Gallery 9 December 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 5 February 2012 exhibition organised by

Rockhampton Art Gallery Tracy Cooper-Lavery Director Shane Fitzgerald Exhibition and Collections Manager Jenny Jones Community Arts Officer Thomas Degotardi Technical Officer Jade-Mae Hornsby Administration Officer Judy Couttie Cultural Development Associate Sarah Lewis Administration (Weekend Support Officer) Patricia Dunn Gallery Assistant

Contributing authors

Acknowledgements The Rockhampton Art Gallery would like to acknowledge the generous support and assistance of the following: Rockhampton Regional Council, Tony Cullen, Carl Indans, Barbara Summers, Mark Svendsen, Gavin Fry, Patrick Connor, Neville and Elwyn Crawford, Komninos Zervos, Holly Grech, Robert Schwarten MP, Chris Cole, Lyn and Andrew McClelland, CQUniversity Australia, Leise Childs, Brian Childs, Dale Childs, Manningham Gallery, Wayne Pegg, Mt Archer State School, Gavin Gilmour, Colleen Fry, Michelle Kershaw, Linda Sykes, Bernadette Gorman, Michelle Moore, Mavis Moore, Greg Deane, Vicki Spendlove, Hope Horgan, Dr. Lynda Hawryluk, Mitch Cook, Sarah Lewis, Wendy Morris, Kay Barrow, Heather Lyon, Kerrie Ann Roberts and Ross Brookes of Segue Art, Athol Watson, Eric Anderson, Warwick Anderson, Doug Steley, Noel Brady, Michael Moynihan, Art Massey, Jenny Lindell, Brett Adlington, Deann Muir, Kerri Foreman and Stockland Rockhampton, The Mill Gallery and the community of the central Queensland region.

Foreword

Preface

Tracy Cooper-Lavery

The Sentient Landscape Shane Fitzgerald

Prawns at Rosslyn Bay a poem by Komninos Zervos

Peter Indans

The 1960s in Melbourne Gavin Fry

Teacher and Mentor Patrick Connor

In Refracted Light

Mark Svendsen

The Sleeping Camel Hosts An Indian Summer Squall a poem by

Lynda Hawryluk

Chloe Revisited

List of Works

Peter Indans

For e wor d Before commencing as Rockhampton Art Gallery Director in August this year, I had never heard the name Peter Indans. I had knowledge of many of the artists that came out of the Melbourne scene in the 1960s and 1970s that Indans called friends – those who have become recognisable names such as Fred Williams, Jan Senbergs, Stelarc and George Baldessin. Yet Indans’ work has remained absent from the art histories written about that period. The Sentient Landscape: the art of Peter Indans seeks to restore and acknowledge Indans’ work within Australian art history and provides the first opportunity for visitors to engage with his career in a retrospective survey. The development of the exhibition began as a ten-year survey including recent work, and involved ongoing discussions between Peter Indans and Shane Fitzgerald. With Indans’ untimely death earlier this year the responsibility of the curatorial rationale was undertaken by Shane and I thank him for his determination and enthusiasm for the project. I also acknowledge the efforts of Carl Indans and Barbara Summers and their support in realising the project.

This catalogue is an important component of the Peter Indans story. I sincerely thank the writers – Patrick Connor, Gavin Fry and Mark Svendsen who have provided fascinating insight into Indans’ life and the various stages of his career. I would also like to acknowledge their immeasurable assistance in identifying and locating works during the exhibition’s development. I acknowledge the in-kind and monetary support of our sponsors City Printing Works and Stockland Rockhampton. The exhibition will be accompanied by a number of related programs and I thank all of my staff for their efforts and assistance. Although I never met Peter Indans, I feel through the words, stories and enthusiasm of those involved and Peter’s works themselves, that I have begun to have an understanding of this exceptional, fascinating and gifted artist and educator.

T r ac y Co ope r- L av e ry

Di re c tor R oc k h a mpton A r t G a l ler y

left:

Untitled (figure) c.1971 oil on canvas 110.0 x 121.5 cm Collection, Colleen Fry

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

Pr e fac e T h e S e n t i e n t L a n d sca pe

T is with a profound sense of sadness and regret that I transcribe these thoughts about the life and work of iconic central

Queensland artist Peter Indans. I first met Peter In 1999 through a mutual friend Dale Childs when we were offering our services to the Mill Gallery to assist in exhibition displays and various other activities that arose from time to time. In 2001 Peter and I accepted appointments to the Board of the Mill Arts Collective. It was during these regular meetings that we would partake in vibrant discussions on life, art and beer. It wasn’t long before a friendship developed and, like many others, I found myself visiting Peter at his studio house in Zilzie. During these brief sojourns Peter and I would descant upon the nature of art and the beauty of the Capricorn Coast. The tone of these discussions was rarely subdued, often contentious and always insightful. I recall vividly on one of these occasions discussing the nature of light with Peter. As a photographic artist I prided myself in my understanding of light and the chemical process of image transference through the lens and ultimately onto the film to represent a ‘departure from reality’.

I lamented many times with Peter that the camera was limiting my output. The image just did not hold the qualities of light that a painting could and I would often use the current work on his easel as evidence to prove my point. Peter, in his usual fashion, would embark on a lengthy lesson on the scientific properties of light. For the next 90 minutes I would become somewhat inebriated but profoundly knowledgeable about incident and specular light, how the viscous medium and multilayering of oil paints allows the light to permeate the immediate surface and thus create depth and light-emitting properties on the two-dimensional plane. After the lengthy discourse expired I would politely remind Peter that I am not a painter. The translation from painting to photography didn’t seem to faze him. When asked how I could apply the same techniques to my chosen medium he simply replied “remove the subject and control the light”. Peter will never know how profound his statement was.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Untitled (Coorooman Creek and Mt Wheeler) 1994 oil on canvas 154.0 x 124.0 cm Collection, Robert Schwarten

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

Not long after this discussion I undertook a rigorous exploration into the very suggestion Peter made and was successful in developing a unique process that allowed me to create photographic works that “paint with light” into the lens of the camera. This, to me, was the brilliance of Peter Indans. His attitude towards other creatives was one of selflessness and support. His knowledge coupled with a desire to share his experiences, discoveries and failures to any who would ask demonstrated strength of character and a passion for arts development that I have rarely witnessed in the visual arts world.

In 2002 I invited Peter to develop a solo exhibition of his work at the Rockhampton Art Gallery. The stage was set and Peter was excited at the prospect. Despite having lived in central Queensland since 1976 the region had not showcased a major solo exhibition

of his work up until this time. On hearing of the prospect, the feeling in the community was one of excitement and celebration toward this project. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances the exhibition was cancelled. In November 2010 I contacted Peter with a proposition to develop a survey exhibition of his work scheduled for display at the Rockhampton Art Gallery in late 2011. Peter feigned interest at the time and I requested an opportunity to meet with him to discuss the details. In typical Peter fashion he responded ‘well I’m at TAFE so I suppose if you are interested you can come down and see me now’. I did just that and visited Peter whilst he was teaching the current group of art students at the Central Queensland Institute of TAFE. I outlined to Peter my thoughts on the exhibition and it was agreed that we would

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

undertake a comprehensive survey of the past decade of Peterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work. This was an exciting prospect as the thought of showcasing at long last the immense artistic talent of Peter Indans. This filled me with a passion to ensure the exhibition was a tour de force and therefore highlight to his many admirers why he was the seminal artist of our region.

Indans was a prolific artist and maintained this output up until his death. By no means an exhaustive collection of his work The Sentient Landscape: the art of Peter Indans brings together 57 works that represent defining developmental periods through to mature and stylistic pieces that are synonymous with the central Queensland idiom.

On June 5 2011, Peter Indans, passed away quite unexpectedly.

The monolithic and prehistoric geographical features of the central Queensland region became the fundamental inspiration and subject for most of Indansâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; large-scale works. He frequently visited and studied the physical and spiritual elements of Carnarvon Gorge, Blackdown Tablelands, Mt Wheeler, Coorooman Creek, Rosslyn Bay and the Keppel Island group.

In the weeks following his death all previous notions of a recent survey exhibition were tossed aside and work began anew. The focus now shifted towards the development of a retrospective exhibition that highlighted the artistic achievements of the artist and anecdotal insights into the man and the legacy which he leaves behind.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

above: Komninos Zervos and Peter Indans 1992 Photographer: Doug Steley

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

Indans was particularly enamoured with the beauty and scale of the Blackdown Tablelands and over the course of a decade it remained a recurrent theme within his image making. The sheer ruggedness and verticality of the space situated, contrastingly, alongside expanses of flat horizon-less landscape posed a challenge to Indans’ preconceptions of pictorial solutions appropriate to the High Country of Eastern Victoria. ‘I found it almost impossible to squeeze and stretch the essential flatness of the landscape of this area into canvasses denied a skyline. The solution, the easy way out, was to select “subject matter” where a thin strip of skyline, or none at all, would be viable’ This shift in perception would herald and define the compositional style that would inform his images and henceforth become synonymous with Indans’ oeuvre. Over the next 35 years Indans would continue his exploration of the region through this pictorial style and undertake a rigorous regime of experimentation and exploration of the technical elements that underpin the construction of an image. In his formative years Indans was recognised as an artist of unique talent and style. But it was during his brief tenure in arts education at Omeo that he began experimenting with surface embellishment and the textural elements which became more prominent in his paintings. However, it was not until his relocation from Victoria to the central Queensland region that this inherent quality would be allowed to fully blossom and mature. right:

Blackdown Tablelands 1985

oil on canvas 194.0 x 132.5 cm Collection, Leise Childs and Andrew Healy

Indans’ curiosity and refusal to acquiesce to the limitations of various media prompted a career-spanning pursuit that would evolve and ultimately inform his paintings.

Having reconciled the compositional challenges of his subjects Indans became dissatisfied with traditional painting techniques and began sublimating processes normally associated with printmaking and transforming them onto the canvas. It is arguably this dogmatic, and yet visionary, approach to mark making that elevates Indans beyond the level of his contemporaries. During the 1990s Indans would begin to reconcile his ‘easy way out’ approach towards depicting the landscape of the region. Works exploring Rosslyn Bay, Coorooman Creek and Pumpkin Island would embrace less introspective compositions in favour of sweeping vistas and satellite inspired observations. In 1997 Indans undertook a brief professional development journey to the Kimberleys in Western Australia after a successful submission for funding and a personal battle pertaining to the future direction of his work. ‘A different place, with time to target specific options, time to explore directions and evaluate solutions, time to experiment, and time, hopefully, to either consolidate or introduce, new elements into my pictorial vocabulary’ The Kimberleys experience is of significant import as Indans rarely travelled outside of the region and the impetus to undertake such a journey clearly points to a major creative impediment within himself. During his journey to the region Indans spent a day in Darwin and by coincidence happened upon and old friend and ‘artist in arms’ Komninos Zervos at the bar of the Darwin Hotel.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

Zervos, a poet, first met Indans quite by accident at a Yeppoon bar in 1992 whilst he was undertaking a ten week “writer in residence” with the University of Central Queensland. The chance meeting in Darwin proved to be a catalyst for Indans as it set the scene for the journey ahead and reaffirmed his decision to seek further inspiration and exploration in his practice. Upon his return from the Kimberleys, Indans – revitalised in his approach to his work – executed a large number of pieces based upon the Western Australian experience. Interestingly his focus shifted towards his gouache and print works with very few large-scale paintings being produced from this series. From 2005 Indans’ work became primarily focused on experimental drawings, with very few paintings of scale produced during this period up until his death as the physical and emotional investment became too taxing on his ailing health. I now return to where I began. I, like many others, feel a profound sense of sadness at the loss of a friend and colleague, and deeply regret that Peter Indans did not live to see this exquisite collection of his works on display. Whilst Peter might not have approved of all of my choices relating to the works displayed in the exhibition I sincerely believe that internally he would have been overjoyed at the celebration of his work, his dedication and his vision.

The realisation of this project is the result of the commitment and support of many people around Australia that it is not feasible to list them all here individually. However, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation and thanks to, in no particular order, Mark Svendsen, Carl Indans, Gavin Fry, Patrick Connor, Barbara Summers, Komninos Zervos and, Neville and Elwyn Crawford. Additionally I would like to acknowledge the commitment and support received from the various public and private collectors and members of the central Queensland community who have contributed their time and efforts to ensure that this exhibition was realised in such a short timeframe.

S h a n e F i t zge r a l d Cu r ator T he S ent ient L a nd sc ape

right:

Innamunjie WA 2001

oil on canvas 152.5 x 106.5 cm Collection, Heather Lyon Photographer: Jenny Lindell

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Untitled (Kimberley landscape)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;1997 14

gouache on paper 31.0 x 38.0 cm Collection, Michelle Kershaw

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Kimberleysâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;1997 gouache on paper 41.4 x 49.3 cm Collection, Carl Indans

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Preface: The Sentient Landscape

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

pr aw n s at Ro s sly n Bay memories inspire poetry and paintings what is left of a life when we are gone? a kilo of prawns a six pack of beer a loaf of bread a marina of memories a pier, a poet, a painter prawn-heads and seagulls a painter squawking perspectives on perspective a poet silent watching/thinking in haiku cats and children play hide and seek in the caverns and crevices of the concrete block sea wall coral sea, capricorn coastline tropical clime visions sublime sea eagle circles high above all is calm in the marina a kilo of prawns a six pack of beer a loaf of bread children playing a painter, a poet memories inspire art and paintings and poetry enrich memories

Kom n i no s Z e rvo s

left:

Prawns at Rosslyn Bayâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;1992 oil on canvas 153.0 x 138.0 cm Collection, Komninos Zervos

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

Pe t e r i n da n s T h e 1960 s i n m e l bou r n e

AMEJS was leader of the Zemgallians, the ancient people of Latvia. In the 13th Century he bravely defended his people

against the German crusader invasion of his homeland. Outnumbered, he was forced to retreat to Lithuania, but before leaving he gave his ring to his young son so that he could recognize him upon his return. The crusaders discovered the ruse and began searching for Namejs’ family in order to force his surrender. To save their leader and his family many copies of the ring were made and most Latvian boys and men began wearing the ring. In the 20th century, for many within the Latvian diaspora, in far flung Australia and the Americas, the ring was a symbol of Latvian identity and solidarity in what seemed a lost cause. A nation almost wiped from the map, only to be reborn phoenix-like at the end of the century. Peteris Viktors (Krauklis) Indans wore the Namejs ring with pride, a great chunky lump of silver, the envy of his peers, a conversation piece and a point of difference.

One hundred fresh-faced young students, equal numbers of men and women, came together at Melbourne Teachers College in February 1965. We’d been successful in our applications to become art and craft teachers for the Education Department of Victoria. Mostly we were straight from high school, each with our own perception of what the future might hold and how we’d play our part in it. Like all such groups there was a period of adjustment as the original intake began to break down and coalesce into the subgroups which form around special interests, geography and a hundred other reasons. Some came from the same town or district, others had been at the same school, while some were thrown together in the departmental hostels for country kids.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left: Peter at Caulfield Technical College 1965 Photographer: Gavin Fry

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

With all such informal groupings dominant personalities soon emerge. Sometimes it is the loudest, maybe the tallest, the smartest or the most attractive who became the point of focus. Personal style is crucial and leaders quickly emerge. In our group, which consisted mainly of students from Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, the focal character was a charismatic young man of Latvian extraction, Peter Indans who, in the way of such things, was quickly and somewhat unimaginatively nicknamed ‘Red’ because of the closeness of his surname to ‘Indians’. Peter had been at Greythorn High School with another of our group, Ted Johnson. Both lived in Doncaster, a suburban area undergoing rapid change as old orchards were rooted out to make way for new estates to house the burgeoning families of the postwar baby boom. We were in the vanguard of that boom, most of our intake being born in 1946 or 47, immediately after the peace had been achieved.

right:

Untitled (standing figure study red/purple/black) c.1972-73

(detail) charcoal, chalk and pastel on paper 124.7 x 93.2 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

Peter’s situation was not uncommon in the great expansion of post-war Australia. Born in Esslingen, near Stuttgart, Germany in 1947 of Latvian parents, he had arrived in Australia with his mother Inese Anna Krauklis after an early life in a German displaced persons camp. His father Viktors Briedis had separated from his mother soon after Peter was born, so mother and son made the long journey to Australia alone. Baltic heritage had been a desirable characteristic for the Australian immigration authorities, the Nordic blondes it was hoped would more easily ‘fit in’ with an Australian community wary of ‘foreigners’ after the war. Peter’s early life was the common experience of many new arrivals – a period in a country migrant hostel, then time living on the construction site of Eildon Weir while his new step-father worked out the family’s ‘obligation’ to the Australian taxpayers who’d ‘generously’ funded their travel and settlement.

Australia, and Melbourne in particular, became a particular magnet for those of Latvian origin. By the mid-1950s Melbourne had become home to the third largest Latvian community in the ‘free world’ after New York and Toronto. The small nation had suffered considerably during and after World War Two, under the Germans during the conflict and under the Russians who annexed the Baltic States immediately after the German surrender. The Latvian language was threatened by official sanction in the homeland and émigré communities worked hard to build libraries and teach the language to the young in the defence of their culture. Artistic endeavour was particularly valued and in 1962 Peter came under the influence of Karlis Mednis, a Latvian artist who lived and worked in the nearby suburb of Balwyn. Mednis was cultured and sophisticated, highly successful as a painter who sold well in the prosperous eastern suburbs of Melbourne. Taking painting classes with Mednis in addition to his art studies at Greythorn High School, Peter quickly developed a mature style well in advance of most of his classmates. He always acknowledged Mednis’ influence, seeing in him a strong role model both as a painter and a man who’d made the transition from old Europe to new Australia with considerable success. Eager to make his own mark as a serious artist, Peter and fellow student Paul Cavell embarked on a project which was to have a lasting effect on the school. The two began a work of sculpture in the school grounds, in the front garden facing busy Greythorn Road. A massive abstract ferro-cement construction in the manner of Henry Moore, the sculpture eventually consumed vast amounts of material and remained immovably in place until the school was sold by the Kennett Government in 1991.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

Sadly the work was destroyed in the building of a new residential estate, but the fact that both young men went on to distinguished careers in Australian art was perhaps the greatest legacy of their time at the school. When classes began at Caulfield Technical College† in 1965 it quickly became clear that Peter was exceptionally talented and had a maturity in his art which was at times quite daunting to his fellow students. He painted with an authority and style which was quite spellbinding, impressing lecturers and students alike. Similarly in life drawing he had a confidence which marked him out as the most promising of the group, rivalled only perhaps by Stelios Arcadiou, a quietly determined young Greek-Cypriot from Melbourne’s west whose career, under the name Stelarc, was soon to take a very different path as a sculptor and performance artist. For Peter the most influential teacher at Caulfield was Warwick Armstrong, who taught both art history and painting. Armstrong was a forceful personality who had firm opinions and a way with words that made him a charming and engaging lecturer. It was not just a precocious talent that marked Peter Indans as the potential star amongst his peers. His formidable intelligence and wide reading made him a powerful debater and his enthusiasm for life in general made him a centre of attention. An enthusiastic drinker by the age of 18, he had been brought up on spirits as a teenager, having acquired a particular taste for Slivovitz, the ferocious plum brandy of Eastern Europe. A similar passion for tobacco saw him spend much of his fortnightly studentship allowance on cigarettes, French Gauloises in pay week, Camels or ‘rollies’ in the off times. The family lived in an old farmhouse on an orchard, with Peter moving into a garage studio where he’d

sleep, paint and hold court over his band of fellow travellers. Most of us had come from conventional middle class families and there was an element of risk and excitement in spending time in Peter’s bohemian den. He always had a painting on the easel, drawings all over the walls, a flagon of cheap red or ‘scrumpy’ cider on the go and the rich smell of French tobacco in the air. Peter took up the guitar and with Ross Chandler, Ted Johnson and myself, a lot of music was played, songs sung and late nights passed. We even made a few appearances at local gigs, although more for the fun and camaraderie than anything more serious. The appeal was in the whole package, the confidence and bravado, the obvious artistic talent, the risk taking and the exotic background all contributed to his aura. And yet for all the excitement of his adolescence, Peter Indans was quietly conscientious and successful as a student. His work rate was in keeping with his talent, to the point that he quickly gained notice in the wider art world while still in college. His work became sought after and clients lined up to purchase his works as soon as he’d satisfied his obligations to assessment and the college system. My own parents purchased a painting from Peter at the end of second year college, a recognition within our family that his art was something special and a standard to which one might aspire. All through his student years Peter remained without a car or a driver’s licence and it fell to whom ever was in the area to call by and collect him from the studio. As Ted Johnson and I were further from town we’d often be the designated drivers, along with Neville Crawford whose passion for Morgan sports cars gave Peter many a wild ride in the country.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

† The Secondary Art & Craft Teachers Certificate was a “polyglot course” which aimed to get the best from a wide course of study. Students were formally enrolled at Melbourne Teachers’ College. They were then allocated to either Caulfield Technical College or Prahran Technical School year about, where they attended four days a week for the first two years. On the fifth day they attended Fine Arts lectures at Melbourne University and professional teacher training at the Teachers’ College. In third year they transferred to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology for a specialist year in painting, printmaking, metalwork or fashion design. Exceptional students, less than 10% of the enrolment, were then given the opportunity to complete a fourth year at RMIT to earn the Diploma of Art. This program was abandoned in 1969 when the Teachers College opened a specialist Art & Craft annex opposite RMIT, known as “Kay House”. left: “Red and Ned” Peter and Neville Crawford in Neville’s 1955 Morgan Plus 4, Prahran Technical College 1966 Photographer: Gavin Fry

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

It is interesting to trace Peter’s early artistic influences. Certainly he’d learned a number of clever mannerisms from Karlis Mednis – his use of glazes somewhat in the manner of Dobell and a grand view of landscape of old master origins – a bit of Turner and the atmosphere of the impressionists. As a student in Melbourne it would have been hard to ignore David Davies’ iconic Moonrise, Templestowe, painted within walking distance of his Doncaster home. Echoes of the twilight world appear in early Indans paintings. He experimented with different painting media, mixing traditional oils with acrylic underpainting. His early works were romantic views of the local landscape, atmospheric and looking back with an appealing nostalgia on the fast-disappearing rural surroundings of his new home.

top: Peter with, left to right, John Ingram, Alan Eunson and Ted Johnson, Bendigo 1965. John and Alan both went on to Fourth Year with Peter, while Ted had been at Greythorn High School with Peter in 1964. Photographer: Gavin Fry bottom:

Self portrait 1967

felt pen on paper 49.0 x 38.0 cm signed Peteris Indãns Photographer: Gavin Fry

Peter painted the female nude as a major theme, along with a series of selfportraits that played up his distinctive looks, curly blonde hair and strong Slavic features. Certainly in his life drawings there are clear influences of George Baldessin, whose groundbreaking ‘super‑sized’ etchings were exciting artists, students and collectors alike.

By the late 1960s Peter was happy to note his main influence as Fred Williams, the most prominent and successful landscape painter in Melbourne, leader of the new generation after Nolan, the Boyds and Albert Tucker. Williams’ depictions of the Dandenong Ranges, to the east of Melbourne, had provided a new way of looking at familiar landscapes and elements of his style come out in the mountain subjects Peter produced at Omeo in 1969 and 1970. The Williams influence is particularly noticeable in the high, and at times non-existent, horizons and schematic cursory treatment of trees and bush. It was hard not to see the world in that way once Fred had opened our eyes to that vision. The top SAC students were given the opportunity to complete a fourth year of study in order to earn their full Diploma of Art, something denied the main run of students despite the intensity of their studies. For 1968 just four painters made it through to fourth year, which was undertaken full-time at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. RMIT was going through a period of change and Peter was fortunate to be there at a time when a notable group of younger artists were in the ascendency. George Baldessin, Andrew Sibley, Peter Clarke and Jan Senbergs were all developing their careers and it was a good time for ambitious students.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

Senbergs, just eight years older than Peter Indans, was Latvian by birth and had arrived down a similar path through postwar Germany and on to Australia as a young migrant. Peter later acknowledged Senbergs as a significant influence on his work, most noticeable in their similarly dark and bold view of the landscape. An interesting aside to

Peter’s view of his Latvian heritage saw him start to sign his name on drawings in the traditional form, Peteris Indãns rather than the Anglicised form he’d been using when he arrived at college in 1965. Among those teachers and mentors the most direct personal influence came from Athol Watson, a lecturer at Melbourne Teachers College, who became a lifelong friend and colleague.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

above:

Untitled (landscape) c.1969-72 oil on canvas 127.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

left: Peter the mountain man, Omeo 1970 Photographer: Gavin Fry right:

Vic. Falls c.1969-72

(detail) oil on canvas 137.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

Peter thrived in the fourth year and graduated as a mature and successful painter. The only downside of the extra year was the fact that the ‘top students’ were still only granted a subsistence level studentship, while their peer group was out teaching and a full year ahead on salary earnings. The prestige and honour of their selection was deemed sufficient reward for being the top students in the course.

happily with the homespun locals, enjoying the freedom offered by one of the most isolated towns in the state. The isolation even encouraged him to take up driving and he obtained his licence from a friendly policeman in the remote hamlet of Benambra – the story being that as he’d been able to drive out there he could obviously drive well enough not to need a further test. The posting to Omeo was

Posted to the remote alpine town of Omeo for his first year teaching, Peter took over the art teaching role from Chris Cust, another of our group at Melbourne Teachers College. He worked hard, painting diligently while pursuing his work at the local high school. Living in a rough timber cottage, he took to the mountain life with enthusiasm. Omeo had been founded on cattle grazing and gold mining, a town full of gritty characters who kept the local pubs alive. Peter fitted in

in some ways a return to his childhood of the 1950s when he’d lived at Eildon, an equally rugged and scenic place in the mountains north of Melbourne. A number of major paintings are connected to his time in the remote North-east, with the Victoria Falls, 25 kilometres east of Omeo, becoming a favourite subject. After two years ‘in the bush’ Peter was back in the city, teaching at Hurstbridge High

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

School and settled in the artistic community of Warrandyte on Melbourne’s North-eastern outskirts. He lived in a quaint cottage named ‘Kuta Mahal’, owned by artist and teacher Harry Hudson, a one-time journalist, illustrator and teacher at my own school, Ringwood High. Peter worked on his painting and developed a reputation as a young artist of real promise. He exhibited paintings at Peter Morris’s Princes Hill Gallery in Carlton while still a student and the friendship continued after the gallery closed at the end of 1968. He also assisted college friends Neville and Elwyn Crawford in setting up their long running art business Recherché in Templestowe, producing a range of ‘art linen’ and designing the original signage and theming for the gallery. It was all challenging and creative work, but perhaps he saw the artistic future all too clearly and the life which seemed to be mapped out ahead of him. Teaching quickly began to lose its appeal, for like a number of his cohort he found that the classroom experience could be inspiring, but schools and their rigid organization could be a deadening experience which took away much of the pleasure of the profession. Not long after completing his three year bonded obligation to the Education Department Peter decided to resign his post and go in search of a more satisfying way of making ends meet while working on his painting. With the encouragement of Robert Green, a local Warrandyte ‘brickie’, he decided that bricklaying might be a pursuit worthy of his effort, spurred on by a somewhat romantic scheme to work in the Antarctic as a builder. This was not as odd an idea as it first appeared, for the Secondary Art & Craft course had an equal emphasis on the crafts as it did on the ‘fine arts’. Students undertook woodwork and metalworking trade courses, as well as technical drawing, providing a range of useful skills that might be applied to many practical ends. Bricklaying was a natural enough

extension of those technical trades. Even more remarkably, his new girlfriend Barbara Summers was also feeling disillusioned with her chosen career in the banking world and she decided to join her man on the bricklaying team, beginning a relationship which was to last much of their adult lives. Together they spent the next two and a half years working on the rustic mud brick and bluestone houses popular in the area, as well as building regular brick veneers in the nearby suburbs. It was Athol Watson who provided the way out of Peter’s professional stalemate. Watson was keen to move away from Melbourne and had successfully applied for a lecturing position with the Capricornia Institute of Technology in Rockhampton. Once settled into the position he realised the need for a creative and hard working associate in the art department, a position for which Peter Indans seemed ideally qualified. Athol enthused Peter with the idea of adventure and opportunity in Queensland. The two were already good friends and fellow anglers and not a lot of persuasion was required. Arrangements were made for Peter to start at the beginning of the 1976 academic year and with Barbara Summers, he left Melbourne permanently. Had he stayed on in Melbourne Peter would have doubtless carved out an impressive career in Australia’s most demanding art market. But ‘up north’ he found the adventure and opportunity he craved and, to the lasting benefit of the people of the region, he chose to stay and build a life in Rockhampton rather than be drawn back to the South.

G av i n F ry Ne wc a st le

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

The end of the Chinese Race 1970 (detail) acrylic and oil on canvas 140.0 x 124.5 cm Collection, Kay Barrow Photographer: Art Massey

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: The 1960s in Melbourne

Templestowe 1966 oil on composite board 67.5 x 95.0 cm Collection, Gavin Fry left:

Doncaster II 1966 oil on composite board 90.0 x 120.0 cm Collection, Manningham Gallery, Vic

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Untitled (standing figure study) 1971

Untitled (seated figure study) c.1967

charcoal and ochre on paper 124.7 x 88.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

charcoal on paper 124.7 x 95.7 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

right:

Untitled (reclining figure study) 1967 charcoal, chalk and pastel on paper 124.8 x 102.8 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

above:

acrylic and oil on canvas 140.0 x 125.0 cm Collection, Wendy Morris Photograph supplied by Wendy Morris

acrylic and oil on canvas 81.0 x 101.0 cm Collection, Wendy Morris Photograph supplied by Wendy Morris

Rain clouds on Mt Sam c.1969

Omeo landscape c.1969

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

Pe t e r i n da n s T e ac h e r a n d M e n tor

N more than one occasion Peter was known to have said I am a chalkie. I have taught for many years to pay for my

addiction. His addiction was clearly the art of making seductive images. Although never designed to be a comprehensive survey, this publication will be the first to catalogue the major themes and developments in the oeuvre of Peter Indans. The words and images published here will assist the reader in developing a picture of a man and his artistic output. Together they have helped me put into perspective an artist of national significance. It is fitting that we should see his name back on the roll call with Sibley, Baldessin, Senbergs and Stelarc. It would be remiss however, if this catalogue does not acknowledge the significance Peter has had as a teacher and mentor. It is possible that Peter will be remembered as much for this legacy as a teacher as he will as an artist of genuine ability. Put simply, he was as good at teaching as he was at applying coloured media to canvas or paper.

After completing fine art and teaching qualifications at RMIT in 1968, Peter began teaching in Victorian country schools. In 1976, he moved to Rockhampton to take up a lecturing position at the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education (now CQUniversity Australia). At the CIAE Peter taught drawing, painting and printmaking in what became known as ‘the Renaissance workshop’. In 1991 Peter began teaching at the Central Queensland Institute of TAFE; a position he retained until his untimely death earlier this year. His time in central Queensland spanned over three decades. During these years Peter conducted numerous workshops and guided many emerging artists informally as a mentor. If you have been a student of the visual arts in the central Queensland region over the last 30 years, it is likely that you have encountered Peter’s easy going and inspirational teaching.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans at the easel Photographer: unknown

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

It is not an overstatement to say that Peter has been one of the most influential visual arts teacher/mentor in Rockhampton, and the Capricorn Coast during this time. In these few pages I would like to share something of Peterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s legacy as a teacher and mentor.

Peter Indans conductng a screen printing exercise Photographer: unknown

Not long after I first met Peter, I was talking to him about a screen print that I was planning. Without hesitation he told me he had some photo-emulsion in his fridge at his house in Quay Street. He explained that the back door was always open and that I should let myself in and use it. Peter continued, explaining where

his screens were kept and that I could use whichever one I wanted. This generosity and trust proved to be indicative of how he treated anybody genuinely interested in making visual art. If Peter knew you were serious about it, he would share his knowledge and materials with you. There was no technique, trick or concoction that he would withhold. If there was something that he discovered, a product or a process that he found useful, he honestly enjoyed being able to share it with you. I remember with much affection, for example, enthusiastic conversations about self-aquatinting aquatints or how to do lithography with an etching press.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

He delighted in combining chemistry, kitchen sink technology and common sense to invent new procedures. His search for new graphic results and improved ways of getting pigments to glow was relentless. This is because the surfaces of his images are dominated by a plethora of competing marks and brazen relationships of colour. His incised, daubed, trowelled, screen-printed, smeared, scumbled and glazed surfaces can be incredibly seductive. In a typically understated way, he would say that ‘if you are going to make a painting, then you may as well give them something to look at’. In an Indans painting the surface of the image is no accident. This surface was

no less important than the image itself and no part of his canvas was less important than another. He would, by nature, find the most potent incarnations of his materials. Like an alchemist, his base materials would be made to transmute into any number of differing accretions. His desire to expand his repertoire of marks and surfaces was uncanny. Peter’s thrill in making images was matched by the thrill of discovering new ways of making them. Over a beer or leaning over the back of his ute, he would show you the results of his most recent investigations. With a wry but knowing smirk he would say ‘check out those prices’, handing

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

over an unimpressive swatch of torn paper. Judging by the look on his face you’d think it a missing piece of the Dead Sea scrolls. He would hand it to you, as excited as a schoolboy, assuming the import of the smudged paper was self-evident. He would literally be beside himself with anticipation thinking through the potential of his new discovery. After allowing a little coaching to help you catch up, you found yourself also marvelling over the visual potential inherent in the swatch. Within moments the apparently unremarkable proved to be thoroughly ingenious. His discovery, you were able to deduce, was not the result of a happy accident. Rather it was the by-product of an unlikely connection; a unique leap of faith. You began to realise, also with a grin growing across your face, that the small piece of paper often represented months of ruminating and testing. His thinking slowly revealed itself: If I roll this “coloured poop” on and then spray it with that, then scratch it with this and wipe it back with that and then repeat the process, then I should get a particular result that will be unlike what I have been able to achieve to date and unlike anything anybody has been able to achieve to date. In these moments you felt like you were a participant in a real visual arts Eureka moment. He would wait patiently to catch your eye, waiting for that same knowing, wry smile to be returned. At this point you realised he had been waiting, possibly for days or weeks to share this germ of a new world with you. In this way his hard won secrets became our knowledge. right:

Untitled (Blackdown) 1980 42

oil on canvas 174.0 x 143.0 cm Private collection, Emu Park

Pete was conscious of bringing this love of experimentation to the classroom. The studio naturally incorporated ongoing research and development. It could be a little like a science lab where students may be delegated

responsibility to undertake certain procedures, thus testing for hypothetical results. The work was old-school, not unlike that undertaken by Joseph Albers’ students who researched the chimerical nature of colour. It was clear Peter wanted students to accept that making art did not always rely on time-honoured and rigid processes. He didn’t want students thinking that they simply couldn’t do it until someone showed them the “correct way”. He felt that it was important that students understood that “techniques” are actually very plastic and that it was important to test for the physical limitations and visual potential of any basic art media. His students were always the beneficiaries of his most recent investigations. His influence with media and mark making is visible in so much of the artwork seen in the region’s galleries and private collections. Peter’s approaches to teaching, art and life share an intertwined philosophy; one I believe that is shaped by experiences in his formative years. Peter spent his early years in immigrant housing in Victoria, which, with mixed emotions, he described as the “wog-shops”. Whilst learning English at school he would teach his mother what he could when he got home. Peter was occasionally needed to translate conversations with government officials and was introduced early to adult discussions and responsibilities. He was also needed for small errands. Peter recalled to me that on one occasion he was asked by his mother to go down to the local shop to buy some soap. When at the shop he used his best English. The shopkeeper was confused and after a little while Peter returned home with a roll of toilet paper. His mother was not pleased. Peter explained with a little chuckle, that through his translation from Latvian to English he had asked for “toilette” or toiletries.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

On reflection, going to the shop to get soap and coming back with “bog rolls” had all the hallmarks of a British comedy skit. It proved to be a seminal experience however. After having a laugh at his own expense, he noted that proficiency with language equated to a type of empowerment. If inadequate knowledge of the native language was disempowering then it logically followed that mastery over language; understanding the subtlety and specificity of language gave you great power over your own destiny. In the way that he made his point, I recognised that Peter was also talking about any form of communication: aural, written or visual. All modes of communication were honoured by Peter to have the greatest significance in human affairs. I think it fair to say that for Peter, even everyday forms of communication were not unimportant or entirely apolitical. Unequal capabilities with language equated to unequal relationships of power; although he would be sure to avoid using phrases like this. For this reason Peter had a general mistrust of metalanguages, especially when used out of context. He was offended at the use of buzzwords in order to make the user sound clever. It was abhorrent to him that someone would use jargon with the intention of excluding others. To Peter, language along with the information it carried was to be shared democratically. Words, talking, showing, sharing was at the heart of human affairs. He found it to be a kind of high-jacking of the terms of communication to intentionally

obfuscate through the use of jargon. Highest on his hitlist was art-speak. I think he felt it made art unnecessarily difficult. To use jargon freely was worse than being pretentious. He essentially blamed “academe” for trying to turn the visual arts into a rare bird to be appreciated by a rarer few. Peter’s position was always more democratic. He believed that any art is meant to communicate. The ease with which one can relate to another visually is at the heart of the visual arts. For this reason Peter could be sceptical about art that was apparently made for an initiated few. He certainly was not a fan of looking trendy in order to impress the arts hierarchy. He was interested in his art being more generally accessible. Although embracing modernist tendencies, he made art for himself and a broad audience. For this reason the layperson and fellow artist alike, find much that impresses in his works. It follows then that Peter has always been interested in communicating in everyday language. Whilst teaching he was motivated by the same democratic principles. He spoke easily with students in a way that they could relate to. He is well remembered for his use of his own “arty-farty” language. He developed his own, unique vis-arts vernacular. It is hard now not to find yourself using terms like “pourri”, “coloured poop”, “doots”, and “mountain sheila pink” to name a few. The terms evolved, some fell out of use, others remain strong in the local lexicon of how to make things.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

above: Peter Indans in his studio Photographer: unknown left:

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1986 oil on canvas 144.5 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

Students understood that this was Peter’s way of communicating in simple, everyday terms. It was also an infectious kind of anti-artspeak designed to make students feel at ease with what they were doing in the studio. It is important to mention this Indansian art lingo because it gets to the heart of why Peter was such an effective and lovable teacher. There is much mythologising about what artists are and what they do. The popular impression is typically of gifted genius or loopy outsider. The visual artist will possibly forever remain, in the minds of the public at least, the quirky eccentric whose works are the residual products of extreme character traits, unexplainable genius or simply mind-altering substances. This popular conception of the visual artist resists the reality that good art is predicated on simple, determined practice, as is accepted in other artistic pursuits like music and dance. Peter used his everyman’s art lingo and relaxed good humour to dispense with these unhelpful and romantic notions of the artist. In an educational context it is good to wipe the slate clean of these hangovers. Rather than being mysterious and forever outside the reach of the every-day person, his use of common and humorous language helped create an environment where the process of making polished and engaging visual art was achievable by anybody possessing sufficient desire to do so.

right:

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1984 46

oil on canvas 153.0 x 122.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

Peter proved to students that being practical and down-to-earth, are essential characteristics of the visual artist. By dispensing with the myth, bullshit and the distancing effects of art speak, Peter hoped to make students feel entirely capable, regardless of their background, education or perceived natural ability. He invested in their confidence by ensuring they developed basic skills and

knowledge that could be relied upon in any given situation. He made the most absurd and misunderstood of all vocations implicitly doable. With practice drawing can be learned, design and visual literacy can be learned, ways of handling materials can be learned. It is possible that I have made Peter sound like a saint. Enigmatic, good-humoured, brilliant, passionate and compassionately human he was. To call him a saint would be a stretch. He could at times be bombastic and impatient. Inane “busy work” and questions that seemed self-evident would be sure to elicit a taut reply. He could be in a bad mood for hours just at the thought of these things. Together with his Viking-like appearance and occasionally abrupt manner, students were initially a little intimidated by him. Before long however, he managed to charm them all. Even the most dubious would succumb to his engaging manner, obvious ability and good-humoured generosity. Students were typically amazed at his sheer depth of knowledge of apparently any given topic. When he was in good form, students would leave class scintillated. They knew they had been in contact with someone quite special; a remarkable one-off. Peter Indans would have been great in any field of study, such was his precocious mind. We are lucky that he chose the visual arts. It may be a long bow to draw, but perhaps we are lucky that he brought home toilet paper instead of soap on that day, so many years ago. I know I am lucky to have known him. He is greatly missed.

Pat r ic k Con nor Vi su a l a r t i st a nd te ac her at C ent r a l Que en sl a nd I n st it ute of TA FE

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

above:

right:

oil on canvas 112.0 x 87 cm Collection, Marie Gottschleigh

oil on canvas 141.5 x 96 cm Collection, Mt Archer State School

Untitled (Mimosa Creek) 1991 48

Mimosa Falls 1990

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

page 50:

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1986 oil on canvas 137.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia page 51:

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1987 oil on canvas 144.5 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia page 52:

Untitled (Blackdown) c.1982-84 oil on Belgian linen 107.4 x 81.4 cm Collection, Mitch Cook page 53:

Blackdown Tablelands c.1985 oil on canvas 152.4 x 121.8 cm Collection, Linda and Mark Sykes left:

(Con) Trails over Double Head 1993 acrylic and oil on canvas 106.0 x 122.0 cm Collection, Mark and Anne Svendsen

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

above: left:

Rosslyn Harbour, Double Head 1992

oil on canvas 132.0 x 106.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

oil on canvas 121.0 x 137.0 cm Collection, Michelle Moore Photographer: Michael Moynihan

Double Head 1993

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

Pumpkin Passageâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;1998 58

oil on canvas 122.0 x 161.6 cm Collection, Brian Childs

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: Teacher and Mentor

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

Pe t e r I n da n s I n R e f r ac t e d l igh t

REAT things are done when men and mountains meet

from William Blake’s notebook circa1807-1809

It is the strangest thing how so much can be said by a bloke in a seemingly offhand way and how long it sometimes takes before one finally understands the full import of the words he’s uttered. I remember one morning Peter paused on my top stair to turn and address Rastus, our blue cattle dog. Rastus was at the lower end of the canine IQ measurement scale, in fact if Rastus had been sitting where he belonged on the scale, he would have fallen off. Pete turned to Rastus from the top stair and said, ‘Ah, dārgais sunīts! Mīļais sunīts!’ ‘Don’t swear at poor Rastus!’ I admonished. ‘Especially in foreign languages.’ ‘I didn’t,’ Peter replied, getting the intellectual burr in his foot. ‘I called him a little dog, a dear little dog. I entered into a loving relationship with him. That’s what’s wrong with bloody English, you can’t enter into relationships with things. No decent diminutive endearments.’

I must have looked confused because he continued. ‘I can enter into a relationship with a person or a thing in Latvian. My dear little house, or my dear little mother, or my dear little mountain. In English it isn’t the same. Dear little Mummy’s okay, but dear little housie, dear little mountainy? Bloody useless language! It just doesn’t translate!’ He turned, his face red, but then … the squall of intellectual frustration passed, blown away on verbal bluster. I laughed at the time, but it took years to understand that I’d been presented there and then with the key to the personal philosophy of my friend Peter Indans. It was a very simple philosophy: as a human being he was about entering into loving relationships with people and places, things and ideas – between which there were no boundaries – the world was indivisible as it was in the old Latvian animist dainas: man, woman, mountain, earth, river, tree.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Pumpkin Lagoon 2001 acrylic and oil on Belgian linen 180.0 x 165.0 cm Rockhampton Art Gallery. Central Queensland Art Purchase, Rockhampton Art Gallery Trust Art Acquisition Fund 2001

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

As an artist he was about revealing these loving relationships. They compelled him to art-make and always this love was infused and informed by the philosophical contentions that fired his mind. He needed to find satisfying, visual answers to the questions of an ignorant world. Both lover and fighter, and continually torn between, Peter was a sensitive, intellectually-gregarious, slavedriving, mercurial, generous-hearted, reticent, poetic, contentious, reclusive, bloody-minded, bombastic, endlessly-inventive, articulate, erudite, silence-seeking, curmudgeonly, conventional, ceaselessly-curious, openhearted, emotionally-profligate, loyal, heavysmokin’, hard-drinkin’, much-lovin’ little hippie boy!

The day when Peter spoke to Rastus he had just returned from his “Big Day Out” in Emu Park. Saturday morning consisted of cleansing of the shack around the back of the hill at Zilzie, washing at the laundromat, a bit of shopping, perhaps filling up on drinking water (as it never rained and the tank was perpetually empty) and buying The Australian so’s to accomplish the crossword, or die in the attempt. The crossword must be beaten. It was a matter of intellectual satisfaction, though it may have appeared mere pride to those who didn’t know him well. I recall a few unappreciated early Sunday morning phone calls which began something like: ‘Seven letters. Fourth letter “h”. A duck of the genus Aythya. Is that another one of your famous Zilzie Tree Ducks? C’mon you’re missing the best part of the day. I’ve been on this since yesterday.’ And good morning to you too, Peter. I should have been thankful that as his “wordist and poetry advisor” he loved me enough to include me in the solution. But ecce homo, behold the man, the world was his question and his answer was out there, though it might kill him and co-opted others in finding it.

Always with Peter there were animated conversations, conversation was lifeblood and he was good at it: lively, articulate, quickwitted, damning. Chewing the knucklebone of contention. Good conversation was necessarily accompanied by friends, your choice of alcoholic and/or nicotine poison, and food – his paella, piroshky, squid salad or pork balls at the table outside the shack at Zilzie, or on the Christmas verandah at 223 Svendsen Road – linger in tongue-memory yet. As do the discussions of subjects as diverse as the nature of fractals and how they can be applied to the refraction of light, or the poetry of e.e. cummings or Pablo Neruda or Dylan Thomas (on the beach at Pumpkin Island) or Robbie Burns’ bawdy ballads, or the fact that science had proven that due to the manner in which air currents circulate around the world we have all breathed in at least one atom of oxygen once exhaled by Julius Caesar. Now he has died it is a profoundly comforting thought to those of us who were fortunate enough to stand close beside him, that through a simple process of chemical transference the very atoms of him are now embedded in the very essence of us. Actually conversation with Peter was more like contention than mere discussion. There was always that concept to chew, especially from science or art, but also social issues or politics, religion or sex – the latter three because everyone’s Mummy told them it wasn’t polite to talk about such things in society – but bugger it, there was nothing more interesting! His knowledge was polymath and eclectic. Flaying an idea was fun with him and intellectually profitable because life is ideas and he loved ideas, he entered into a relationship with them and then lived with, and by, the philosophy he unearthed both as artist and man.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

Pumpkin Islandâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;1999 oil on canvas 82.0 x 131.0 cm Collection, Lyn and Andrew McClelland

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

He never argued much, though raised voices may have proclaimed otherwise, rather he contended loudly that the way his world was wasn’t right by him. People were either part of the solution or the problem. The intellectual legacy of the 60s provided an underpinning for both relationships and kitchen sink art from which he never really strayed. For Peter image-making was also a contentious undertaking – a discussion with the subject of the work and the philosophy behind it as much as with the materials used in its creation. But it was a contention in which he, as the artist, always triumphed. The only matter for debate was the degree of satisfaction winning conferred. It is an abiding wonder for me to sit and look at a “Peter painting” (as my kids used to call them) of a well-known local landscape then, on next seeing that landscape, being visually shocked by what I had not previously seen, by what Peter had convinced me, through his painting, that I must see. It is a rare and preciously gifted artist who can do this. The viewer of an Indans work becomes privy to both his visual contention and its resolution and it alters their perception of the world. Peter’s work teaches everyone to see. When he first moved to the humpy (shack, shed, “round at Peter’s”, call it as you will) I phoned to ask if I could visit. ‘That’d be great,’ he replied. ‘I’ve just painted the windows and doors the colour of leaves. Come and have a look.’ On arrival I discovered the windows painted a dull orange. ‘I thought you said you were painting them the same colour as leaves,’ I said. ‘Yeah, that is the colour of leaves,’ he replied.

‘No it’s not,’ I retorted. He stared at me for a moment, wild-eyed and incredulous, before storming out of the shed, ripping some leaves off the nearest Moreton Bay Ash and returning to hold them against the window frame for a colour-check before forcing the dull orange mass into my unwilling hand. ‘I suppose you call that f…ing green!’ he roared. ‘You don’t look, and you can’t bloody see!’ Mea culpa, mate I’ll stick to writing. I have seen many landscapes, often of exactly the same scene Peter has rendered but they are, to use his word, “pretties” by comparison with his work, they do not force any visual issues. As Peter would say to his students, ‘The world is ugly enough. Try not to add to it!’ By which I believe he meant, contend in a manner lovingly to the eye, but contend, because that’s what beauty is. But what of loving relationships and artmaking? Of course there are the nudes. Nudes always. Some models are known, some unknown; some loved, some not; many straight out of those artist’s bibles, Penthouse and Naturist, but all sensual, whatever the medium. I always have to stop myself from running my hands over the surfaces of any of Peter’s works, but particularly the nudes. He invites us to enter into the process of creation through the sensuality of touch. But Peter’s love of women, in both the general and specific, does not stop with nudes, it simply overflows from there to flood the world. I would contend that many of his nudes, as well as being great art and good little earners, are in fact studies for his landscapes. The curves and clefts are all there, the medium and subject may differ but the sensuality of line and texture does not.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Untitled (standing nude) 2010 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 46.9 x 32.6 cm Collection, Carl Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

‘In Latvian I can enter into a loving relationship with people and things,’ he said.

above: Peter and Carl Indans Photographer: unknown opposite:

Untitled (Coorooman Creek) 2004 66

oil on Belgian linen 183.0 x 137.6 cm Private collection

When he lived at Zilzie, Mt Wheeler was always “she”, her moods as different as her cliffs and crevices were feminine, mysterious and secret in changing light. And the creek, Coorooman, breathing in tides, was as sensual in her curves as any nude or Lady Penelope, Peter’s resident “familiar”, a carpet snake who looped naked from the rafters of his dreams. When Peter quoted his touchstone poem, William Blake’s The Mental Traveller, ‘I travelled through a land of men/A land of men and women too’, I believe it meant for him quite literally a land constructed of the substance of man and woman. All creation was of the same indivisible substance – a vast metaphor of human consciousness. I am cosmos, cosmos me. Man/woman/mountain/ tree. How Lettish. How 60s!

out surveying the street in a paint-spattered and ink-wiped shirt. Held in his inky hand a lit fag coiled a smoke wreath around his cherubic, golden, fine-haired head. But he had lived in other places since moving to central Queensland in 1976 with his partner Barbara Summers. First to Cawarral at the base of Mt Wheeler, then to 286 Denison Street before Peter alone made 418 Quay Street his home – with his son Carl joining him on weekends and holidays. This house, in which he squatted rent-free, was both owned and condemned by, the Rockhampton City Council. His tenure there was measured by the number of Council elections he managed to endure. Every election some indignant candidate would try and have him thrown out, so he’d lay low and make sure he’d screenprinted enough t-shirts for the local school and sports clubs to “pay his rent” to society.

The first time I met the ’dans was at 418 Quay Street. I can still picture him, framed by the window beside the red front door, as he leaned

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

A few days before our first meeting at 418, I left a message for him at “the office”, aka the public bar at the Depot Hill Hotel (as 418 had no phone). I was the producer for a theatre group based at the “new” University (UCCQ). The Director had dispatched me to see if Peter might do a set for our next play. Unbeknownst to me Peter had done the last set – from design to construction and installation – all for the princely sum of $300 plus materials. Also unbeknownst to me when he’d first come to central Queensland it was to teach art at the UCCQ’s predecessor institution, the Capricornia Institute of Advanced Education. He’d remained employed there on a succession of short contracts but left at the end of 1986 in acrimonious circumstances. So his parting shot, as I hurried out his front door, our first meeting summarily concluded was, ‘Now be a good little boy and scurry back to your boss at the Rathouse and don’t come back until you can tell me exactly what he wants and I’ll tell him how much he can’t afford me!’ I left. We laughed often later about our first meeting and he confessed that he’d muttered a few choice epithets at me concerning the University’s oppression of the artist. He was all out of love with the Rathouse and I was in the firing line. The bureaucrats finally won though, as is their wont, and he was evicted from 418. After a short stay as artist-in-residence at the Walter Reid Centre, he moved to the shed around the back of the hill at Zilzie where he stayed – limpet on rock – for sixteen years. There he worked, as he had always worked, experimenting to perfect new techniques with which to record his beloved creek and mountain, just as before them he had recorded Blackdown Tableland, Double Head, Mt Jim Crow, Pumpkin Island and other “visually exciting” landforms.

I clearly remember the day in the late 90s when he arrived at our house clutching a six pack of VB and a sheet of cast-coated impervious paper – Chromalux. ‘Look at that!’ he said throwing the paper down on the table with an exuberant gesture. I looked. ‘It looks like a piece of paper, with two block colours rolled one on top of the other.’ He happily nodded me on. ‘And it looks like someone’s stuck some tape onto it, then ripped it off and the paint’s come away.’ ‘Yes!’ he giggled triumphantly. (And yes, he did giggle.) ‘Except it’s two layers of ink that I screen-printed on. Someone interrupted me on the top layer and it went tacky and it ripped off when I lifted the screen!’ His eyes were afire. ‘So what?’ I asked. ‘So what!’ he roared. ‘When you work with the refractive qualities of light on surfaces this is exciting. Can’t you see the possibilities of layering the inks and working back through them?’ By now I must have perfected my dumb writer look as he sighed, ‘Let’s have a beer and I’ll explain.’ But it was within a month of receiving a supply of Chromalux paper and ink that the first miraculous fullyworked images of nudes and the mountain appeared – layered, rubbed, scratched and scraped to speak for themselves about the refractive possibilities. The technique was mastered and the little master was back where he always ended up after the battle with the media and the idea – lovingly in control.

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Mt Jim Crow 1987 oil on canvas 122.0 x 106.0 cm Collection, Mark and Anne Svendsen

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

So it was for all the Zilzie years, Peter making his images and teaching at TAFE to fund his addiction for art. Until in June this year when we said an unwilling farewell to Peter at the base of his beloved mountain. We are left now with only memories of the man. But we have the objects of his heart and mind before us and, if I have contended well enough with you on his behalf, let me suggest that we enter into a contentious and endearing relationship with these things Peter Indans has made, these things that some call art, the “pourri” and the “doots” on surfaces that refract the light, because by doing so we may still, in a very real way, enter into a loving relationship with the man who believed ‘… so bound are we that your hand on my chest becomes mine, so bound are we that when I dream, it is your eyes that close.’ Pablo Neruda Sonnet XVII

right:

Mt Wheeler c.2000 70

oil on canvas 152.0 x 168.0 cm Private collection, Emu Park

M ark Svendsen Wr iter Z i l z ie

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

The Sentient Landscape

In refracted light

Peter Indans: In Refracted Light

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

T h e Sl e e pi ng Ca m e l ho s t s a n I n di a n Su m m e r squ a l l In the shadow of a monolith Sleeping sentinel against a late summer heatwave Tussock grass up top bent to a breeze which doesn’t reach us down here Driving down a corrugated country driveway The jolt of the cattle grid on unsuspecting suspensions Bounces us back to reality And to lunch at a studio of its own making Birds hear the friendly banter and bickering Of new friends chattering in sultry sweaty stillness Sipping a tonic or two to ward off the heat A palm slaps against exposed and fresh flesh again I am a novice at this And wore short pants to the artists’ picnic Bushman’s repellent is no match for the midges’ miniature might Food, wine and company provide simple sustenance To soak up a solitude only broken by an old dog’s satisfied sigh And the laughter of likeminded souls

And still the majestic monolith watches on The trachyte teeth of a still-sleeping camel bared in solemn warning Blue-green hues of a murky mountain Hide the soft edges of a jade statue Pushed up through the earth with volcanic force And carved out over 60 million years or so Hidden rivulets and valleys snake their way across the landscape To a mob of contiguous eucalypts Looking up at an old man’s forehead formed by the wisdom of age Firm but fair, a guiding hand to explorers long since lost to time Laughter subsides to silence as the squall passes by The nearby trees are still once more While the last fallen leaves dance a mournful corroboree Welcoming restless spirits home We congregate like parishioners around the pews of Peter’s table To learn a lesson about being reborn from the ground up

LY N DA H AW RY LU K

The horizon is conquered by Gawula Looming silently before us A benign benefactor of generations past Tinted with the stain of genocide The mountain wears its low cloud crown proudly Rising through mist like a tussock-covered phoenix In the late afternoon a summer squall sets in A tempest in the treetops Eucalypts bend back lazily, stretching their limbs after a long day providing filtered shade The sky turns gunmetal then opens up and envelops us Washing away the heat and dust Fat drops drip their way through a frayed gauze sunshade The sad grey skin of low cloud breaks open Revealing a white light interior

left:

Cockscomb I 2007 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 51.0 x 40.5 cm Collection, Dr. Lynda Hawryluk

Cockscombâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;2009

Study: Cockscombâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;2007

etching and aquatint on paper 49.0 x 34.0 cm (plate) Collection, Sarah Lewis

goauche and Aquarelle pencil on Saunders paper 51.0 x 41.7 cm Private collection

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Cockscomb IIâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;2007 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 51.0 x 41.7 cm Private collection

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

page 76:

Coorooman Creek 2001 oil on canvas 110.0 x 183.0 cm (diptych) Collection, Bauhinia Architects page 78:

Coorooman, 4.65 2004 oil on Belgian linen 141.5 x 96 cm Collection, Carl Indans page 79:

Coorooman 1998 oil on canvas 133.5 x 128.8 cm Private collection right:

Chloe revisited 2001

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Series 7 Variation I 77.2 x 37.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

C h loe R e v i si t e d In 1997 while glancing through a copy of Art in Australia, I came across an article on Chloe. It brought back memories of my student days in Melbourne. Chloe had ‘pride of place’ in the saloon bar of Young and Jackson’s Hotel, across the street from the hub of Melbourne’s rail system, Flinders St. Station. This location and a history of controversy probably made Chloe Victoria’s most famous nude. Chloe in Greek mythology was your average pastoral nymph. Her only claim to fame it seems, a dalliance with Daphne; of turned into a bay laurel tree to escape the lustful pursuit by Apollo, fame. Painted by Jules Lefebvre in 1875 this beautiful work is a full length portrait of a young woman and won the Gold Medal when first exhibited at the French Academy. It came to Melbourne for the ‘Exposition’ in the late 1890’s and was purchased by a local doctor. A few weeks after finding the first article, by chance I came across another in The Australian and stranger still the following week a small 12 line letter to the editor. It questioned all the fuss about a silly old painting and all the ado about infamy. Compassion, the writer went on, should be expressed for the fate of the poor model. It seems that she was madly in love with the artist, who in turn, it seems was in love with her sister. This situation ended tragically when the young model took her life by drinking a concoction of match heads dissolved in beer.

The image, its history; and my own memories of emotions, philosophies and relationships became entwined for a while. Chloe fascinated me and I felt somewhat compelled to represent the image. My original intuition was to trace the flowing lines of the pose and do my own thing—but somehow that seemed insufficient… too distant… somehow it needed a more direct reference. A reproductive—rather than purely reinterpretive—process seemed most appropriate. The original magazine and newspaper images were either photocopied or computer separated and then applied to silk screens. The reproduction was carried through to paper - Chromolux and graphic arts industry screen and off-set inks were used throughout. Standard process colours (CMYK) either transparent or opaqued with white filled out the palette.

Pe t e r I n da n s 19 98

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

opposite: (top row left to right):

Untitled (Chloe yellow) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 75.5 x 36.4 cm Collection, Carl Indans

Untitled (Chloe in green) c.2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 74.7 x 36.4 cm Collection, Carl Indans

Chloe revisited (digital) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/4 78.3 x 38.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans (bottom row left to right):

Untitled (Chloe scraped in mauve) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 76.3 x 30.8 cm Collection, Carl Indans

Chloe revisited (black and orange) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/3 75.1 x 39.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans

Chloe revisited (mauve) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/3 75.7 x 36.5 cm Collection, Carl Indans left:

Untitled (standing nude) 1999 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 108.0 x 71.5 cm Collection, Bernadette Gorman and Stephen Nicholls

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Untitled (seated nude)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;2000 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 90.0 x 67.0 cm Collection, Holly Grech and Shane Fitzgerald right:

Untitled (standing nude arms raised) â&#x20AC;&#x201A;2006 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 54.2 x 34.3 cm Collection, Carl Indans

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

left:

Untitled (reflective nude)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;2007 acrylic inks, off-set inks and graphite on Chromalux 102.5 x 77.5 cm Private collection right:

Untitled (seated nude)â&#x20AC;&#x201A;1995

pastel and charcoal on paper 91.5.0 x 84.0 cm Collection, Lyn and Andrew McClelland

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

L i s t of wor k s Works are listed in chronological order with corresponding page numbers preceding catalogue entries.

32 Doncaster II 1966

34 Untitled (standing figure study) 1971

30 Templestowe 1966

35 Untitled (reclining figure study) 1967

21 Untitled (standing figure study red/ purple/black) c.1972-73

oil on composite board 90.0 x 120.0 cm Collection, Manningham Gallery, Vic

oil on composite board 67.5 x 95.0 cm Collection, Gavin Fry

charcoal, chalk and pastel on paper 124.8 x 102.8 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

34 Untitled (seated figure study) c.1967 charcoal on paper 124.7 x 95.7 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

36 Rain clouds on Mt Sam c.1969 acrylic and oil on canvas 140.0 x 125.0 cm Collection, Wendy Morris

37 Omeo landscape c.1969 acrylic and oil on canvas 81.0 x 101.0 cm Collection, Wendy Morris

27 Vic. Falls c.1969-72

oil on canvas 137.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

25 Untitled (landscape) c.1969-72

oil on canvas 127.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

28 The end of the Chinese Race 1970

charcoal and ochre on paper 124.7 x 88.0 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

Untitled (figure) c.1971 oil on canvas 110.0 x 121.5 cm Collection, Colleen Fry

charcoal, chalk and pastel on paper 124.7 x 93.2 cm Collection, Neville and Elwyn Crawford

43 Untitled (Blackdown) 1980 oil on canvas 174.0 x 143.0 cm Private collection, Emu Park

52 Untitled (Blackdown) c.1982-84 oil on Belgian linen 107.4 x 81.4 cm Collection, Mitch Cook

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1984

oil on canvas 153.0 x 122.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

Blackdown Tablelands 1985

oil on canvas 194.0 x 132.5 cm Collection, Leise Childs and Andrew Healy

Blackdown Tablelands c.1985

oil on canvas 152.4 x 121.8 cm Collection, Linda and Mark Sykes

acrylic and oil on canvas 140.0 x 124.5 cm Collection, Kay Barrow

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1986

oil on canvas 144.5 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1986

oil on canvas 137.0 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

Untitled (Blackdown Tableland) 1987

oil on canvas 144.5 x 121.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

68 Mt Jim Crow 1987

oil on canvas 122.0 x 106.0 cm Collection, Mark and Anne Svendsen

49 Mimosa Falls 1990

oil on canvas 141.5 x 96 cm Collection, Mt Archer State School

48 Untitled (Mimosa Creek) 1991 oil on canvas 112.0 x 87 cm Collection, Marie Gottschleigh

16 Prawns at Rosslyn Bay 1992 oil on canvas 153.0 x 138.0 cm Collection, Komninos Zervos

57 Rosslyn Harbour, Double Head 1992 oil on canvas 121.0 x 137.0 cm Collection, Michelle Moore

oil on canvas 154.0 x 124.0 cm Collection, Robert Schwarten

87 Untitled (seated nude) 1995

pastel and charcoal on paper 91.5.0 x 84.0 cm Collection, Lyn and Andrew McClelland

14 Untitled (Kimberley landscape) 1997 gouache on paper 31.0 x 38.0 cm Collection, Michelle Kershaw

15 Kimberleys 1997

gouache on paper 41.4 x 49.3 cm Collection, Carl Indans

79 Coorooman 1998 oil on canvas 133.5 x 128.8 cm Private collection

58 Pumpkin Passage 1998 oil on canvas 122.0 x 161.6 cm Collection, Brian Childs

63 Pumpkin Island 1999

oil on canvas 82.0 x 131.0 cm Collection, Lyn and Andrew McClelland

83 Untitled (standing nude) 1999

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 108.0 x 71.5 cm Collection, Bernadette Gorman and Stephen Nicholls

56 Double Head 1993

oil on canvas 132.0 x 106.0 cm Collection, CQUniversity Australia

84 Untitled (seated nude) 2000

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 90.0 x 67.0 cm Collection, Holly Grech and Shane Fitzgerald

54 (Con) Trails over Double Head 1993 acrylic and oil on canvas 106.0 x 122.0 cm Collection, Mark and Anne Svendsen

Untitled (Coorooman Creek and Mt Wheeler) 1994

Mt Wheeler c.2000

oil on canvas 152.0 x 168.0 cm Private collection, Emu Park 89

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans

Innamunjie WA 2001

82 Untitled (Chloe in green) c.2001

oil on canvas 152.5 x 106.5 cm Collection, Heather Lyon

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 74.7 x 36.4 cm Collection, Carl Indans

76 Coorooman Creek 2001

67 Untitled (Coorooman Creek) 2004

60 Pumpkin Lagoon 2001

78 Coorooman, 4.65 2004

oil on canvas 110.0 x 183.0 cm (diptych) Collection, Bauhinia Architects

acrylic and oil on Belgian linen 180.0 x 165.0 cm Rockhampton Art Gallery. Central Queensland Art Purchase, Rockhampton Art Gallery Trust Art Acquisition Fund 2001

82 Chloe revisited (black and orange) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/3 75.1 x 39.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans

82 Chloe revisited (digital) 2001

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/4 78.3 x 38.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans

82 Untitled (Chloe scraped in mauve) 2001 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 76.3 x 30.8 cm Collection, Carl Indans

80 Chloe revisited 2001

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Series 7 Variation I 77.2 x 37.0 cm Collection, Carl Indans

82 Chloe revisited (mauve) 2001

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux Edition 1/3 75.7 x 36.5 cm Collection, Carl Indans

(Con) Trails over Double Head 1993

(detail) acrylic and oil on canvas 106.0 x 122.0 cm Collection, Mark and Anne Svendsen

82 Untitled (Chloe yellow) 2001

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 75.5 x 36.4 cm Collection, Carl Indans

oil on Belgian linen 183.0 x 137.6 cm Private collection

oil on Belgian linen 141.5 x 96 cm Collection, Carl Indans

85 Untitled (standing nude arms raised) 2006 acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 54.2 x 34.3 cm Collection, Carl Indans

74 Study: Cockscomb 2007

goauche and Aquarelle pencil on Saunders paper 51.0 x 41.7 cm Private collection

72 Cockscomb I 2007

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 51.0 x 40.5 cm Collection, Dr. Lynda Hawryluk

75 Cockscomb II 2007

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 51.0 x 41.7 cm Private collection

86 Untitled (reflective nude) 2007 acrylic inks, off-set inks and graphite on Chromalux 102.5 x 77.5 cm Private collection

74 Cockscomb 2009

etching and aquatint on paper 49.0 x 34.0 cm (plate) Collection, Sarah Lewis

64 Untitled (standing nude) 2010

acrylic and off-set inks on Chromalux 46.9 x 32.6 cm Collection, Carl Indans

The Sentient Landscape: The Art of Peter Indans