As man lauched its first Satellite into space in 1957 I was five years of age and was being looked after by my Aunt Edna from time to time due to my mother’s illness. At my aunt’s premises in Glenhuntly, Victoria I was exposed to a wonderful original charcoal black, grey and white painting of the Russian Naval Fleet painted by artist Spalokiff and dated 1904.

As it turned out it was a present to my grandparents on the birth of my father. I now have possession of and cherish the painting as I deem that viewing the painting in my infant years was my first exposure to the art world.

Whilst at primary school, I had to paint an illustration of the Captain Cook landing. The teacher remarked “Kevin, did your parents help you draw and paint it as it is excellent?” This is my earliest recollection of my artwork and now I wish that I had possession of that ‘piece of art’. It would be another forty years before I would again pick up an art brush.

“Mum and Dad, Kevin’s gone walkabout again” was stated to my parents by my older brother whilst the Weeks family were on a camping holiday along the Campaspe River in Central Victoria in the early 1960’s. I would often trek off by myself into the terrain and along the river edge and just admire the local scenery for hours on end.

I have always been fascinated with the sea with its varying colours and waves and complimented with the foreshore sand, rocks and debris. It neally took my life when I got out of my depth as I had never been taught to swim.

As a teenager, I would often view my father with sketch pad and HB pencil in hand. He would spend hour upon hour sketching varying scenes. However, at that stage in life I was too occupied in salvaging bike parts from the local tip, kicking the taped-up newspapers (used a football) or playing cricket with the hand-made cricket bat.

When my father took it upon himself to demolish the old horse stables at Aunt Edna’s Glenhuntly homestead, he re-used the timber to build himself a large shed in our Ormond home. My father painted the interior shed walls in lime green and added varying red impressionist paint strokes. Did I ask why and what subject? No.

At the age of thirteen years, I stumbled across an old Murrumbeena homestead being demolished and was able to salvage a quantity of old Illustrated London News publications (that were used as ceiling insulation) dated 1851 to late 1870’s.

To this date, I still have some of them in my possession and remain highly impressed with the many black and white wood engraving illustrations. The marvellous find gave me an insight into illustration and architecture. At the age of thirteen years, I designed a house and the exercise taught me the importance of maintaining accurate dimension.

In 1972 I was conscripted into the army under the National Service Scheme (my marble had come up) and deemed that it was important to capture images of military life by camera. There were the typical shots taken of army life but also some wonderful landscape and aerial scenes. It was at this time of my life that I decided to photograph landscapes, seascapes and lifestyles (including pop rock groups in concert and scenes from Sunbury Rock and Pop Festivals).

In the late 1980’s, I had my own black and white photographic tribute gallery wall in my home at Belgrave Heights.

In fact, the passion with the camera shutter has never abatted and regularly compliments my artistic endeavours.

During a bleak weather weekend in 1996 I purchased a cheap set of water colours. I put brush to paint and to ‘A4’ paper and received several compliments from the family. I reckon that it is awful but important to keep as an illustration of my pursuits with the brush. In fact, I still have my first art brush mounted on the wall of my studio.

At that stage in my life, I found that painting was a source of relaxation, particularly with the stresses associated with work, family and all other such things in modern day life. My two brothers had become radio announcers and was it all part of a release in mid-life or just ‘coming out of the closet’ by the Weeks brothers?

Three years later in 1999, two significant milestones occurred in my affair with the art brush.

Following suggestions by my wife, I joined the Berwick Artists Society and held my first exhibition at the Casey Civic Centre Art Space entitled ‘Le Scapes’. At the time an art critic likened my artworks to a painter named Monet.

I immediately proceeded to look up his work and once I had I was flattered. I extended my research into looking up other impressionist artists, namely Manet, Pissarro, Sisley, Van Gogh, Degas and Renoir.

They had challenged the art world and despite the disappointments and often reported humble lifestyles they succeeded. My interest in European History and old newspapers had been ‘brought to life’ by reading about the experiences of these Impressionist painters in the 19th and 20th centuries, as depicted by the destruction and re-building of Paris, the Franco-Prussian War, and Salon de Refuses and introduction of the Post Impressionist era

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Soon after, paintings began to be erected in my workplace and homes of my children and friends (the largest painting with dimensions 6 metres x 3 metres). Corporate acquisitions followed and I was all of a sudden being dominated by painting by subscription, despite the comfort of knowing that your paintings are hanging on another person/s wall.

I needed to knuckle down and develop a unique style of painting, without the aid of any formal art lessons. It was time to stop painting with my hands, cardboard edges, palette knife, applied pepper or anything else.

I had to meet the challenge head-on without exposure to others style of painting. It was all about identity and it took some work and frustration until I ‘found’ the colour black. Overnight it had become my trademark, not only in my choice of apparell but application of acrylic paint onto canvass.

I had passed the point of no return and was hooked but clearly had to set in place a core value associated with my painting, i.e. NO FUN, NO PARTICIPATION.

In 1999, my wife and I commenced to travel overseas and with every exposure to the varying landscapes I would cite the phrase “I must paint that”. My collection of artist endeavours consists of New Zealand, American, Canadian, European and Chinese landscapes and cityscapes.

At the start of the new Millenium, a relative of mine had come forward as part of his passion to write and publish a family history. I supplied the sufficient information for the publication. However, what had come to light was that my great grandfather was a dominate force in establishing the township of Hahndorf in South Australia and may well have had involvement in the School of Art to which the famous Australian artist Sir Hans Heysen was a member. Unfortunately, to date I have been unsuccessful in sourcing any artworks from my ancestry past but who knows as this world is full of surprises.

In 2006, I joined the Sherbrooke Art Society for a couple of years and held an exhibition of works.

The critics ‘came out of the wood-work’ so to speak and a published article cited the following: “His (Kevin’s) unique impressionist style is deemed by other artists and art journalists as challenging the conservative and traditional techniques”.

In 2007, my brother John (an avid photographer) and I participated in a joint exhibition entitled ‘Take 2’ that was held at Kallista. The Exhibition featured photography by John and of course paintings by me. It was fun and built on the family relationship. It was just a bit sad that our parents were not alive to have viewed our works of art as brothers in arms.

In the same year, Berwick Artists Society members John Miller, Glo Edkins and I held an exhibition at Narre Warren Library of our respective artworks and named the Exhibition ‘Different Strokes’.

As part of my opening speech to family, fellow BAS members and guests, I cited some of the following remarks that related to my painting activity and uniqueness:

· The caveman picked up coloured earth and formed images and now modern man buys art products to undertake graffiti.

· Art is not just limited to the brush, paint and canvas but covers many forms from flower arrangement to selection of clothing attire. Flowers die but an artwork can live forever.

· An artist can be mentally crushed when he or she hears an appraisal “That is not art as things do not look like that”. On the other hand it is gratifying to hear “Oh yeah, that is a Weeks composition”.

· No one, except an artist, can really understand the level of satisfaction an artist gets in the decision making process at the start, duration and completion of a painting.

· My pursuit in art is an ongoing voyage of discovery and challenge but there are no icebergs on the horizon. It is steady as she goes, despite encountering a few sleepness nights.

· I am often compelled to state that I should have been born in the middle of the 19th century.

· To wake up in the morning with no intention to paint but yet achieve a framed painting by the end of the same day is exhuillarating.

· Take a close look at the composition of my paintings, i.e. the brush strokes, distortion, the darks and how each painting is webbed together. It’s putting your optics on a highway.

· Bring on the critic.

The importance of having designed, erected and decorated one’s own studio is worth mentioning, particularly after having spilled a box of used pastels over a wide area of bone coloured carpet within the family home.

My studio (established in 2008) is an area where I enjoy a climate controlled environment, play my favourite music and focus as the ‘hussle and bustle’ of modern life passes by. It is my world when it comes to painting, particularly since having retired from the workforce in June 2009.

Since I started painting, I have maintained a scrapbook of my endeavours. This has been important tool to me in tracing my development, contributions and milestones. Some would say that it is an egotistical exercise but experience has shown that documentary evidence and images can be of particular interest and or provide humour to others and future generations.

2010 has been particularly important to my interest in painting as I have undertaken several projects and set out a few objectives:

1. Exhibited ten paintings in Chit Chats Restaurant in Berwick.

2. Painted of six scenes around Berwick.

3. Painted several scenes of Giverny, France as a salute to Claude Monet and written about my related experience.

4. Painted a series of American landscape scenes including the Grand Canyon and Yosemite.

5. Decision to paint more European scenes, including Paris and Rome.

6. Achieve an objective to apply more diversity and vibrant colours to my painting.

7. Put pen to paper to write this article.

On a final and most important note when it comes to my pursuit in painting, I thank my wonderful wife for being my greatest critic and supporter.

Kevin Weeks