Son of the Brush by Tim Olsen

 

I took a long time to read this memoir by Tim Olsen, son of John Olsen who has the reputation of ‘Australia’s greatest living artist’, because every time Tim referred to an artist or a work of art I felt compelled to look each one up so I could see who or what he was writing about. This exercise added greatly to my interest in the story of a child who grew up surrounded by people whose lives were totally dedicated to the making of art. With his parents and sister he lived in many and varied artistically inspiring locations including Watson’s Bay on the east side of Sydney harbour; Notting Hill, London; a Spanish village called Mojacar; Hill End in country New South Wales and Dural in the rural outskirts of Sydney.

With this background Tim’s life was always going to be about art but he turned from painting to curating and, with his stored knowledge and understanding of his chosen subject, he set about creating galleries which would accommodate the works of the best artists he could find. He has held countless successful exhibitions for his clients and he has carved out a truly impressive career.

Through the quite fascinating story of his personal as well as professional life is woven the thread dealing with Tim’s overcoming his addiction to alcohol. His day to day world involves of necessity a lot of entertaining and, as well, he grew up surrounded by artists, many of whom, including his father, viewed alcohol as an intrinsic ingredient almost in fuelling their creative endeavours. As the son of a famous father Tim enjoyed benefits and privileges many people would envy but it was always going to be difficult for him to make his own way in life.  His heartbreak when his father left his beautiful mother thus bringing to a end an idyllic if unconventional childhood and the consequent adjustments he had to make were hard for a sensitive boy to make sense of.

 I have seen how alcoholism invades someone’s life. It gets easier every day to step inside that fog and leave the world outside. Tim’s eventual victory over his addiction is an inspirational story. It is hard to see from the outside why someone like Tim would have needed to barricade himself from a world full of art, travel, beautiful and famous people, his adored son and his loving father but life is never that simple.

I was very happy when I was referencing the artists Tim was naming to find Nicholas Harding. I was looking at the Archibald Prize entrants at the Sydney Art Gallery a few years ago when I came across a stunning painting of one of my favourite authors, Robert Drewe.  I didn’t make a note of who painted it at the time but when I looked up Nicholas Harding while reading Son of the Brush I found it there together with some other beautiful paintings by Nicholas Harding. I have thought of that painting often and it was lovely to see it again, if only on my iPad, courtesy of Google! (I’m hoping one day to win the lottery and buy a Nicholas Harding of my own.)

5 out of 5!

Published by Allen & Unwin