Alan Phillips Art

Alan graduated in Industrial Design from R.M.I.T. in 1969, and in his the final year won the Sebel Design Award. For the next two years Alan worked for a consultant graphic designer in Melbourne. In 1970 he trained as an Art Teacher before taking up a teaching position in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Alan lived in the Alice for ten years teaching Art at an Aboriginal College.
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In 1985, Alan moved to Darwin and from 1991 to 2000, worked as the Director in charge of Public Relations and the Print and Publications Unit for the Northern Territory Department of Education. In 1998 Alan took 3 months leave and traveled extensively throughout Europe.

After leaving the Public Service in 2002, Alan started his own publishing, art/ Investment consultancy and divided his time between publishing duties and painting in his Darwin studio.

In 2003 Alan and his wife sold their Darwin house and studio and returned to Italy to live and work. Alan completed a major body of work whilst living in Umbria particularly concentrating on the landscape and the surrounding hill top towns.

After returning from Europe, Alan moved to Beechworth where he built a house and studio on 18 acres of natural bush. He is presently working on his third book. His current book is about his experiences in the Northern Territory and teaching art to Aboriginal students in the 1970’s. It also touches on the beginnings of the Papunya Tula art movement. Alan also teaches drawing classes on a regular basis and conducts weekend retreats on landscape painting and drawing for beginning and experienced artists.

Alan has journeyed long to reach his current destination. The genesis for his paintings comes from, and is rooted in the deserts of central Australia. The wide open spaces littered with spinifex and long languid sand dunes stretching to the horizon spoke to him of a timeless landscape. Something happened there, which resonated with him and so changed his view of the land forever. His first encounter with this ancient land brought about a perception of the bush that has not ceased to excite him some 40 years later. He works with oil paint often making sketches on site.

Alan has been represented over the years in galleries in Melbourne, Darwin, Armidale and the Gold Coast. His work is in the permanent collection at Araluen Art Gallery in Alice Springs and private institutions and company boardrooms across Victoria.

Alan lives in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia and is married with two sons