BRETT WHITELEY

Lavender Bay provided Brett Whiteley with a wonderful and ever-changing source of inspiration, of ships and sails on the blue waters of one of the most beautiful harbours in the world, its grandeur echoed in the span of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the sails of the Opera House beyond. The busy life on the bay was a feature of many of Whiteley's best paintings, seen through the studio windows in such master works as the Archibald Prize winning Self-Portrait in the Studio, 1976, in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Sulman Prize winner, Interior with Time Past, 1976, in the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Others he devoted entireley to the Bay - two versions of Lavender Bay in the Rain of 1974 and 1981, Grey Harbour, c.1978, and the like. The Whiteleys settled in Lavender Bay in late 1969, in a large Victorian brick house in Walker Street, their hilltop home providing special views of the inlet. In recollection, Wendy Whiteley said: 'The Lavender Bay period was also about the whole concept of beauty, with sumptuous, glorious pictures celebrating the harbour, the birds, and the table tops too'. ¹ The liveley technique of Sketch of Lavender Bay expresses Whiteley's spontaneous response to the scene, capturing the animated movement of the expanse of waters and exhilarating feeling of space.

1. 'Recollections; Wendy Whiteley interviewed by Barry Pearce', in Pearce B., Brett Whiteley: Art & Life, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1995, p. 48.