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A walk through Pro Hart’s three-storey gallery in Broken Hill shows he is more than a “brushman of the bush” and leader of the outback painting movement. He holds a magnificent private collection, where works by John Percival and David Boyd hang side by side with John Constable.
“I think the international painters are just as important,” says Pro. “It's good to see good Australian art mixed in with it.”
He also loves to collect vintage cars, is an A grade pistol shooter, and invents machines. He owns and plays the largest Rodgers Electric Pipe Organ in
But from the White House to
Born in 1928, he married Raylee Tonkin in 1960 and they had five children. He sketched underground using the altered light from the carbide lamps, producing “light out of dark” paintings.
The breakthrough came with his first exhibition at
He works primarily in oils and acrylics, using layering, chiaroscuro, glazing, scumbling, scratching, Alla prima and any technique to achieve the right result, including firing paint onto the canvas from a cannon. “I don't plan it. I just melt into it,” he says.
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