Colin Noel Chandler: Biography.
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Title
Colin Noel Chandler: Biography.
Author
Rob ChandlerDetails
18 May 2010Publication date
18 May 2010Type
Biography
Language
EnglishCountry of context
Australia
Full text
“Colin Noel Chandler was born on the 25th of November, 1931 at Echuca, Victoria and spent much of his childhood in the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne. Initially, it was Bill Onus, an Aboriginal gallery owner in nearby Selby, who encouraged him to start painting and then sold most of his work in the early years.
It was Bill Onus that took Colin and his works to the state capitals to exhibit his work, which at that time mainly consisted of Aboriginal portraiture in oil on velvet. While under Bill Onus’ tutelage, he assumed the pseudonym of ‘Murrawin’, although he occasionally signed his work as Noel Chandler, as his father, Colin Wyatt Chandler was also an artist and he wanted to reduce confusion between their works. He maintained this pseudonym for many years and regularly signed his work so, until latter years when he often signed with just ‘CHANDLER’.
He moved to Alice Springs in 1967 and proved his versatility in a variety of mediums and in a wide variety of subject matter; however, he was always best known for his portraiture.
His works won many prizes including:
· The Alice Prize 1973 (portrait);
· Highly Commended 1974 Alice Prize for ‘Keith’ and ‘Undoolya Gap Bore’;
· The Alice Prize 1977 (Camel);
· Campbelltown Portrait Section winner 1978 (Egbert);
· Best Portrait & Popular Vote 1978 portrait (Sharyn);
· Whyalla Art Prize Citation 1978 (Birds); and
· Advocate Art Prize 1981 (Camel);
In Alice Springs in 1974, he was commissioned by the Catholic Church to paint the “Black Madonna and Child”. The final piece was controversial because it depicted the subjects as Aboriginal. Colin reportedly said that the painting was originally a means of giving Aborigines a way of identifying with the church and to show that God is not a “white man’s God”.
He spent considerable time studying the locals and travelling to several communities in order to find a suitable model for the painting. The girl who finally modelled for Madonna lived at the Santa Theresa community approximately 70 kilometres North-East of Alice Springs.
He said that the child in the painting was a composite of several children, “each with a certain quality”.
Colin illustrated the Alice Springs Sketch Book published by Rigby Limited in 1977; it contains some 26 illustrations/sketches.
In his later years, he was greatly interested in the works of the masters and produced many copies of their works, experimenting in the same styles, mediums and materials. His work in pen-and-ink was very detailed and his watercolours sought after. He was commissioned to paint a collection of animals and birds in watercolour and pastels by the Alice Springs Casino in the early 1980s which hung in the Casino’s Restaurant for years until removed some time in the late 1980s during a refurbishment.
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, he travelled throughout the USA, New Zealand, China and Mongolia. These trips greatly influenced his subject matter. He left Alice Springs in 1984, moving temporarily to Adelaide and then to Wonthaggi in Victoria. It was here that he experimented in sculpture and writing, going onto to expand his talent to include acting at the local theatre.
He took a year off in the 1990’s to travel the country, photographing the people and places along the way. He documented much of the trip in diaries with the intention of publishing another book based on historical places and the locals, showing illustrations with descriptions of the most interesting nearby attractions.”
[Rob Chandler, 18 May 2010]
Last Updated
03 Oct 2020