Gill & Ian McDougall

Gill and Ian McDougall  26.04.2019

I don’t think Gill and I ever thought of ourselves as collectors of Art. We found ourselves going to gallery showings of the work of people we knew – a lifelong interest in the arts, in painting, collage and sculpture as well as in the performing arts, meant we drifted into these events. Attracted to ideas and experiments, we seemed to associate with arty types and ended up at openings and art events.  It was inevitable that we began to buy things we liked, by people we admired, and sometimes works about things we were interested in. I think the first work by a known artist might have been a lithograph by Sidney Nolan of Ned Kelly at Glenrowan, signed and noted as A/P, from Gould Galleries.  The most recent work; a ceramic figure by the Thai-born Australian sculptor Vipoo Srivilasa, called “Coat of Arms lll”. Such “wool gathering” has produced a diverse selection. It has a mood we have always been attracted to – the cabinet of wonders, the eclectic mix of memories and personalities.

While our collection is of Australian and Vietnamese artists only, it is not themed or “ism-ed”. The diversity of the art is life affirming to us.  I like to read on the sofa. It is a moment of awakening and joy to look up at the salon miscellany of our pictures, gaze on one, like Louise Forthun’s beautiful blue “Ultra”, which has been living with us since 2004, and remember its story, its author and its speculation, and see it afresh.