Frank Hodgkinson

After service as an official World War II artist, Frank Hodgkinson left Australia in 1947 to study and travel throughout Europe. During this period he took some lessons at S.W. Hayter's Atelier 17 in Paris.

He returned to Sydney in 1953. Then, after winning the inaugural Helena Rubinstein Scholarship in 1958, he took up residence in Spain; John Olsen was living nearby.

On a number of occasions in the 1960s Hodgkinson returned to Australia for exhibitions.

During a trip to Perth in 1969 he was invited to travel through the north-west of the state. The journey reawakened his need for the Australian landscape and resulted in his relocation to Queensland at the end of 1970.

In 1971 Hodgkinson welcomed Clifton Pugh's invitation to visit him at 'Dunmoochin'. He joined Pugh and John Olsen at this artists' colony on the outskirts of Melbourne at Cottles Bridge. Pugh, who had recently returned from S.W. Hayter's school, was keen to experiment with the oil viscosity etching process, and his enthusiasm proved to be a major stimulus for Hodgkinson's printmaking.

Within a short period he produced two suites of prints, Inside the Landscape and Landscape Inside, and, jointly with Pugh, a book of prints and the poems of Harry Roschenko, titled IS.

In his figurative landscapes, time-worn lines become rich and sensuous - full of colour and texture in a joyous celebration of female and landscape forms. At the end of 1971 Hodgkinson left the artists' colony to visit the Australian outback which has continued to fascinate him and stimulate his work.

Inside the landscape III
1971 Dunmoochin, Cottles Bridge, Victoria
hard-ground, deep etch, printed in colour on paper

Gordon Darling Fund 1999