Ben Shearer (born 1941 in Adelaide, South Australia) is an Australian artist who specializes in

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

of the

Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

History

When Shearer was six years old, an injury during a game of

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

resulted in blindness of his right eye. He claims this accident as the reason he spent hours painting in school instead of playing sports. Shearer has also said he attributes his creativity and passion of art to his ancestors, John and David Shearer, inventors of the first steam-powered motor car. After finishing school, Shearer was awarded a Wool Research Fund Scholarship to the

Gordon Institute of Technology The Gordon Institute of TAFE is the Technical and Further Education institute predominantly servicing the wider Geelong area. The Gordon opened in 1887 and celebrated 130 years of providing education in 2017. The Gordon provides education ...

Geelong Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

and studied

textiles Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

. During this time, he lived at the

Geelong Grammar School Geelong Grammar School is a private Anglican co-educational boarding and day school. The school's main campus is located in Corio on the northern outskirts of Geelong, Victoria, Australia, overlooking Corio Bay and Limeburners Bay. Establ ...

and met his future wife. Shearer attended post-graduate school at the Scottish Woollen Technical College in

Galashiels Galashiels (; , ) is a town in the Scottish Borders with a population of around 12,600. Its name is often colloquially shortened to "Gala". The town is a major commercial centre for the Borders region with extensive history in the textile in ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, where he studied fabric design and weaving. After graduate school, Shearer moved to Melbourne and worked as a carpet designer for 11 years. While living in Melbourne, his wife gave birth to their two sons Andrew and Tim. During the next three decades, Shearer taught himself how to design clothes, weave, make tapestries, draw in pastels, and paint. In 1979, Shearer began his art teaching career at St. Catherine's College, located on the campus of the

University of Western Australia University of Western Australia (UWA) is a public research university in the Australian state of Western Australia. The university's main campus is in Crawley, Western Australia, Crawley, a suburb in the City of Perth local government area. UW ...

in Perth. The next year, he began teaching at Scotch College in Melbourne for 14 years. In 1995, he began to focus exclusively on his artwork and now uses his home as a studio. Shearer starts with pencil drawings on French Arshes paper and then applies the paint. There are usually four to six watercolours being worked on at the same time, so that when he works on one painting, the others can dry. In addition to his paintings of the Outback, Shearer's works include scenes of Red Cliffs on the

Murray River The Murray River (in South Australia: River Murray; Ngarrindjeri language, Ngarrindjeri: ''Millewa'', Yorta Yorta language, Yorta Yorta: ''Dhungala'' or ''Tongala'') is a river in Southeastern Australia. It is List of rivers of Australia, Aust ...

Katherine Gorge Nitmiluk National Park is in the Northern Territory of Australia, 244 km southeast of Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin, and 23 km northeast of the town of Katherine, Northern Territory, Katherine, around a series of gorges on the Kat ...

, Boulia, the

De Grey River The De Grey River is a river located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. It was named on 16 August 1861 by the explorer and surveyor Francis Gregory after Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey, who was at the time the president of the Royal ...

, and

Kakadu National Park Kakadu National Park is a protected area in the Northern Territory of Australia, southeast of Darwin. It is a World Heritage Site. Kakadu is also gazetted as a locality, covering the same area as the national park, with 313 people recorded l ...

. His works have been displayed at galleries in Sydney, Canberra, and Melbourne, as well as the Embassy of Australia in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He resides in

Malvern, Victoria Malvern ( ) is a inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, eight kilometres south-east of the Melbourne central business district, located within the City of Stonnington Local government areas of Victoria, local government area. Malve ...

with his wife of 48 years, Caroline.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shearer, Ben 1941 births Living people Australian painters Artists from Adelaide Scotch College, Melbourne Australian people of Scottish descent 20th-century Australian artists