By Phil Jarratt
A little more than half a year since losing the mayoral election, renaissance man Tony Wellington is relaxed and welcoming as he and partner Judy Ditter host their part of the first weekend of the Noosa Open Studios Art Trail at their hinterland home.
This wonderful concept of personalizing art and artists by bringing the public into the process could not be better demonstrated than by Tony and Judy’s “at home”, because there are some in our community who might have assumed that Wellington, licking his wounds after electoral defeat, had taken to solitary painting of dried arrangements or other grim subjects.
Not at all. In fact either side of – and even during politics — the man has been a creative powerhouse of art, photography, film, writing and music since university days. Since losing the March election to Clare Stewart, Tony has produced a wildlife photography book (currently at the printer), written half a treatise on music and politics in the 1970s (with a publisher) and added significantly to his stock of super-realist oil paintings, which we are admiring at his Tinbeerwah home today.
The wonderful and seductive trick about Tony Wellington is that behind the gravitas and the genuine commitment to making the world a better place, he seems to be enjoying a private joke which is on display in so many of his oils. He is a visual prankster who brings a little touch of Dali to the Australian landscape, although he insists that he works from imagination rather than memory.
“My landscapes are imaginary but they might be inspired by the local landscape. I’m not trying to represent the local landscape in my painting, if I want to do that I’ll use my photography. I think a painting should take you somewhere completely new.”
While politics rarely rears its ugly head in Tony’s quirky works, one new piece that catches my eye immediately is called Political Expediency, which plays on a simple road sign. He says: “It’s all about the way Australia treats refugees, which I think is a national disgrace. Whenever I drive past a sign that says Refuge Island, I think of the way we treat our refugees. I don’t often resort to making political statements in my painting, but this one gets on my goat.”
The lighter side of the artist is revealed in a piece called That Holiday, which is “based on the notion of the memory of a holiday, so I’ve got reminder post-it notes of what you need to take on a holiday, slapped on top of the image of Old Woman Island, so it’s very much the idea of a Sunshine Coast holiday.”
Another eye-catcher, The Threshold of Desire, shows a horse looking up at a dangling carrot. “This one is all about wanting things we can’t quite reach, the nature of human existence,” says the former mayor. But the notion doesn’t appear to reflect Tony’s current yearnings. He says simply: “I’m in more control of my time now and I’m finding time for the things I enjoy.”
Noosa Open Studios continues until October 18. See Tony Wellington’s art at 800 Sunrise Road, Tinbeerwah, 10am-4pm this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
