Hugh Adamson

Adelaide Artist

Born in Goroke Victoria, came to Adelaide in 1958. I am now, an Adelaide artist, retired, but previously an art teacher, small graphics business owner with my wife Yvonne and I have been drawing and painting, as long as I can remember.

The brilliant and quirky things about people and the things we can do has always been a favourite topic for my paintings. Musicians feature highly. Some years ago I was given permission to sit in on Adelaide Symphony Orchestra rehearsals, to prepare sketches for a subsequent series of paintings. It was a brilliant experience for me, resulting in dozens of quick thumbnail sketches. I produced about 40 paintings based on those drawings, musicians occupying a large space in my portfolio. I am perhaps better known for painting border collies running around on beaches, and they have been very successful for me. But the pinnacle of my work always comes back to people and so I also paint many portraits including previous governor Hieu Van Le and my portrait of Anne Levy resides in the National Portrait Gallery.

As time passes the influence of great 19th and 20th century artists I was taught about at SA School of Art and who strove for new ideas in their painting, drives me to experiment with new ideas as well and helps to explain why my latest orchestra and ASO paintings are as they are.