Gordon Thurmer - Adelaide Hills

Gordon Thurmer - Visual Artist

I have had a deep and lasting desire to practice the visual arts since I was a teenager. Earlier in my boyhood I developed some skill in pen drawing, and I have continued to play with this medium till the present day. On a regular basis (every few years) I produce a series of Pen drawings which are printed to cards. These provide the income for my other love, that of oil painting.

In 1997, I finally found out that the dismal bleakness I seemed to have suffered since I was a child was in fact, a type of resistant depression. Art suddenly became very, very important, and has proven to be the finest medicine available to cope with this rotten illness.

I have had no formal training, and my work has emerged from an interest in numerous styles. I still am not sure if I have my own. As for the subject matter, I am not so afraid these days to illustrate, as best as I can, the frailty of the human condition and yet the tenacity and humour above all. Truth and humour, the first made more palatable by the second.

I have been a part of numerous exhibitions, sold a number of works and completed a few commissions. My art and my family are my life and my saviours.

I am a member of The Artist's Voice, an Association of Professional Visual Artists based in the Adelaide Hills.