In 1983 when I picked up my brushes and sent my first painting to be framed, I got a call from the painter / framer, Ken Harris.
Ken said a doctor from Sydney had come up to purchase a Sir Patrick Kilvington painting to donate to a Sydney university art collection on behalf of his son’s graduating co-hort, but had seen my painting and wanted to buy it. I hadn’t heard of Sir Patrick so rang him to obtain feedback on my work.
After questioning me closely he generously asked me to bring up several works for his perusal. Having placed a dozen paintings around his studio and retiring for coffee we revisited his studio. Pleasantly surprised by what he was looking at, he proceeded to tell me I had a problem. Consecutively pointing to several paintings, he told me not to sell them, due to the fact that as an unknown artist I couldn’t charge enough for the quality of the works he was looking at.
Pausing at the end of his walk he turned, pointed to Brumbies Run, and said, “… and never sell THAT one!”
While this was to cause me a big headache in the short term, it subsequently led to the beginning of what became known as The Richmond Collection.
