New gallery to bring a unique perspective on High Country art

CHARLES Wilcox didn’t necessarily expect to be a highly-successful artist. “It’s a funny story,” he remarks. The artist was working in Yackandandah and would collect driftwood on his days off work. One day he made a driftwood fish. “Someone said, ‘I really liked that, would you be interested in selling it?’” he said. From there, Charles has never really looked back. “I started selling them in shops down around the coastal side of Victoria and then galleries all around Australia and overseas,” he said. Charles’ latest project is the opening of his new gallery in Mansfield’s High Street, showcasing his work and its progression from the sea to the hills. After closing his gallery in Sorrento a few months ago, he has been focussing on completing his commission work and preparing for the opening in Mansfield. “I was selling [my art] through galleries and they tend to take a 50 per cent commission,” he said. “It got to a point where the galleries were calling me and getting them to take them to client's homes before I even got into the gallery lounge. “The backorder was building up that much that they were struggling to get stock and I was pretty much dropping off artworks to people’s homes.” Charles travels to far north Queensland a couple times a year to collect driftwood for his famous sculptures. “I find everything from pieces of driftwood from dug-out canoes to paddles that have washed up from PNG,” he said. “I've even found life rafts along the beach there. “There’s a lot of parts of Victoria and New South Wales where you can't actually take driftwood from the beaches, so I go to Queensland. “The timbers up there are rainforest hardwoods; they're a lot denser and don't rot.” This success has transferred beyond the original sculptures, with a line of jewellery partnered with Melbourne Gold and Silver sold all over the country. The artwork Charles creates is more than the driftwood sculptures. A major feature at the gallery is a collection portraits painted on old newspapers, featuring imagery of the local environment. Much like the driftwood, these artworks are now core to Charles’ work and came about by accident. “My friend and then-future brother-in-law was short on staff one day working in demolition and I found newspapers underneath some lino,” he said. “I painted a picture on it - I can't remember what the first one was - I actually didn’t like it and I put it near the bin. “Two people came past the gallery studio that I had at the time and said, ‘that's really cool are you selling it?’ “That's where it started off and I've painted thousands now. “I now sell them all over the world.” Charles collects newspapers to turn into his canvases, using each backdrop to tell a story reflected in the portrait. “I think newspapers are a bit of a time capsule,” he said. “When you see some of these old newspapers you know you see things you would never normally look up. “They’re a window to the past and I love that. “I love the old ads and the difference in the cost of things. “I think the contrast to have a girl who's vacuuming [in the canvas] and then a [painted] girl riding a horse with dirt on her face; there’s that contrast [between the art and the newspaper content] which I really like,” he said. “People love the old ads and the stories and reading about things. “There's people who read them and go, ‘that's actually my cousin's uncle who did this or had that business’. “I have someone who is going to give me vintage Mansfield Couriers too,” he chuckled. “I am moving into other mediums but the newspaper medium itself is really cool.” Despite the beauty, extensive preparation is required to paint on the custom canvases. “The biggest challenge for me is painting on newspapers; it's not like watercolour paper,” Charles said. “You can get to the end of a stroke and the ink can just run straight across and unlike a canvas, you can't just paint over it. “When you seal the papers, they actually go transparent and the ink from both sides comes through. “Suddenly it can become a big motley mess,” he said. “I spent ages trying to find these different products and I finally found one from France that seals the top and doesn't make it transparent.” The paintings on top are inspired by the artwork and media of the 1950s and 60s, particularly James Bond and tourism advertisements. “I love the 1960s graphics and artwork from that era,” Charles said. “I've tried to bring it in with brighter colours and combining the old and the new.” As Charles and his wife Tory started looking for a place to raise a family, Mansfield presented itself as an option. They acquired the location for Charles’ studio in May, packing up the Sorrento studio and preparing the new site for its opening. “We're going to be here hopefully forever,” he said. “My dad used to do mining up around Beechworth and Yackandandah and I grew up there as a kid.” His wife Tory added, “My mum lives up here as well.” Moving to the High Country has also changed Charles’ art, with the famous snorkels replaced with ski goggles and fish with horses. “I've had to make a bit of a shift in what I've done from nautical work into more inland work,” he said. “I used to do a lot of paintings of the girls with a mask and snorkel which was a coastal theme. “Now were switching to the snowboard helmets with Mt Buller in the background as well as horse riding and the freshwater fish sculptures,” he said. “I have made three rainbow trout, a red fin, yellow belly and some yabbies and freshwater crays. “Every exhibition is going to be a different series. “I'll be doing a horse riding series, a hunting series, a fishing series and probably a whole series on fly fishing. “I’ll release different things that are very High Country based and over summer I will introduce some of the more coastal work so people who have a love of the beach will be able to see that.” The process to fit out the gallery has also been a challenge, as Charles continues to fulfil the backlog of commissions and prepare for the launch of the gallery. “One of the downsides with art is you can't really scale yourself, unless you're doing prints,” he said. “The biggest thing for me is time wasting. “All of a sudden its lunchtime and I've done nothing because I've read through 20 pages of news. “The other thing that is hard is when you sometimes get really cool ads on both sides. “You have to ask, which part of history do I want to keep and which bit am I deleting? “That's the thing that makes it kind of cool, you have that choice.” Despite all the challenges, Charles and Tory have felt very welcomed by the community and are excited to showcase the next step of his creative journey. “We are grateful for the support we have had so far,” Tory said. The Wilcox Gallery is open from Saturday, December 9 each weekend.