THE PERMANENT COLLECTION
A permanent collection of works of art has been built up over the years by the acquisition of winners in the Annual Autumn Art Exhibition, (and just recently the Summer Art Awards Grand Winner). Included in the Collection are also paintings donated or bequeathed to the Gallery or bought by the Committee to add diversity and variety to the Collection.
In 2025 the collection consists of about 400 art works which are housed in a temperature-controlled storeroom. The gallery tries to include some select works from the permanent collection in one or two exhibitions per year. Rotating art works are on loan to the Bright Library, the Myrtleford Hospital and Mt.Beauty Hospital for the viewing pleasure of visitors and patients.
Featured Works from the Collection
Thomas Lawler
The artist Thomas Lawler was born in Bright. After researching the evidence of what had been the worst race riots in Victoria’s history, Thomas Lawler decided to paint the events on screens large enough not to be ignored.
The screens are styled around the five elements of the Chinese world – METAL, EARTH, FIRE, WOOD, and WATER. It is also important to note that the screens represent an historical time sequence from the first screen to the last.
In 1857 there were over two thousand Chinese living and mining in the Buckland Valley. On July 4th the non-Chinese miners decided to evict them from the valley, blaming them for the economic downturn on the goldfields.
During the first 24 hours most Chinese fled the valley, three dying in the process. This figure is often disputed as being too conservative. On July 5th Robert Burke arrived with a detachment of troops to quell the riot. The Screens were originally part of The Buckland Riots Exhibition set up in the gallery in 1988 as part of Victoria’s Bicentennial Year celebrations. Following the very successful display which ran for 5 weeks an extraordinary meeting was held to consider a public appeal to purchase the screens. A price was negotiated with the artist for the purchase and because of their immense size were hung in the Shire Offices until a mobile frame was built for them so that the screens could be viewed at ground level as originally intended.
Norma Bull
The Gallery prides itself on having a collection of 43 of Australian war artist Norma Bull. She was born in 1906 in Melbourne and studied National Gallery of Victoria Art School. In 1938, she was awarded the Sir John Longstaff Scholarship in Fine Art. This enabled her to move to England in 1939 to study at the Royal Academy in London. At the outbreak of war, she applied to become a war artist. In 1941, she was given a sketching permit by the War Artists Advisory Committee to record bomb damage in the Bristol area. Her sketches represent an important historical record of life in England during the war years but are also moving works of art. The Bright Art Gallery is fortunate to have a number of her wartime paintings including the most well known, ‘The Madonna of the Blitz’ which was considered to have captured the stoic and serene nature of the British women during wartime.
In 1947, an exhibition of her 205 wartime works entitled ‘Two Hemispheres’, opened at Australia House in London. Norma returned to Australia and in 1948, and continued to paint landscapes in her traditionalist style. She had strong links to Bright, and spent 6 weeks here every year. In March 1962, she won the inaugural Bright Art and Photographic Competition with a painting entitled “Rock Cathedral, Taggerty”. Unfortunately this painting along with 18 other prize winning paintings was destroyed by fire in 1982. When she died in 1980, the Trustees bequeathed many of her paintings to Bright Art Gallery.
Brian Elvish
Brian Elvish (1947 – 2020)
Brian holds the record for participation in the Bright Art Show. He has entered paintings in all but two Exhibitions since 1967. Awarded “Best Local Landscape” in 1976, 1978 and 1983. he has also been a winner and highly commended at several other regional exhibitions. The Might of Bogong was purchased by the Bright Gallery in 1987.
Born in Myrtleford, Brian worked in a number of jobs before settling on sign writing as a career. Apart from a stint in Melbourne where he learned the trade, his life ha been in the North-East. He made his home in Bright. Although mainly self-taught, Brian studied tonal painting with Shirley Bourne, who in turn had been a student of William Dargie.
He continued to experiment, learn and develop as a painter, mainly from books sourced by staff at the Bright Library.
The Mighty Bogong
Hans Knorr
Hans Knorr (1915 – 1988)
Hans was trained as a cabinet maker in Germany. Following internment in Victoria during world War II, he married author Hilde Dent in 1948, decided to remain in Australia and earned international acclaim as a sculptor.
In 1978 Hans and Hilde moved to Myrtleford. Although his work is on display in many sites throughout Australia and overseas he is mainly remembered in the local area for “The Phoenix Tree”. This huge sculpture, carved from an enormous tree stump was commissioned by the Myrtleford Chamber of Commerce and takes pride of place in the median strip of the Great Alpine road close to the town centre. It was unveiled in 1986 after three years of intensely physical work.
All artists with work in the Bright Art Gallery Permanent Collection
Works by the following artists are not always held at the Bright Art Gallery. Please email the Gallery if you require further information.
Allen, Gregory
Ambagtsheer, W
Andrews, Alex
Armstrong, Jo (2)
Ashcroft, David
Austin, Joyce
Barnes, Mark
Beasley-Southgate, Barbara (2)
Bennett, Pam (3)
Benwell, Meg (2)
Bilbrough, Fiona
Blakemore, Kathy
Bolitho, William
Borchardt, Janet (2)
Boucher, Heather
Bradbury, Tom
Bramleigh, Rex
Braund, Dorothy Mary (2)
Brayshaw, David
Bredl, John
Brewster, Regina (2)
Bruning, Astrid (3)
Bull, Norma (43)
Bush, Charles
Cameron, Christine
Cameron, Donald (2)
Campbell, Lois
Cape, Ann (3)
Chen, David (2)
Chick, Lorna
Claydon, Dennis
Colbeck, Pam
Cole, Ian (3)
Coleman, James
Collins, Bett (2)
Colville, George
Cooke, Lyn
Cork, Merran
Crerar, Valma (2)
Dalton, Ted (2)
Deam, Hazel
Denner, Joan
Deutscher, Stephen
Dickinson, Geoffrey
Drew, Dudley (2)
Duncan-Firth, John (7)
Dundon, Helen
Eggleton, Peter
Ellem, Kathy
Elvish, Brian (2)
Embrey, Kim
Engel, Alfred
Evans, Anne (2)
Farr, Patricia
Ferguson, Tom
Foletta, Louise (2)
Forge, Lorraine
Forsyth, William M.
Francis-Johnson, Toni
Fraser, Sally (2)
Garde, Judith
Garward, Rhonda
Gay, Beryl
Gill, Angela
Graham, Nancy (3)
Grant, Colina
Gray, Jean (2)
Hales, Evelyn (5)
Hand, Anne
Hanson, Lorraine
Healey, Eleanor Healey, Judith
Heaney, Colin (3)
Hellier, Dermont (2)
Herbert, Les
Herzog, Richard (3)
Hiley, Terry
Hill, Mollie (3)
Holland, Karen
Hong, Fu
Horsfield, Ramon (3)
Houston, John A.
Hoyle, Glen
Hunt, Roy
Hunter, Helen
Hunter, Nada
Hyatt, Amanda
Jobst, Elva
Journoud-Ryan, Jessie
Jungwirth, Betty
Kalifa, Marc
Kalinowski, Victor
Kerr, Alex B.
Kicker, Maria
King, Di
Knorr, Hans
Kortland, Wim (2)
Kuljurgies, Henrika (2)
Laird, Gary
Lake, David
Largent, George (2)
Lawler, Jan
Lawler, Thomas
Livingstone, Shirley (3)
Long, Jan (2)
Lorenc, Lydia (2)
MacKenzie, Ian
Magpayo, Joel
Mannix, Max
Margocsy, Paul
Marrone, Carolyn
Martin, Alan (2)
Martorana
McDonald-Smith, Paul
McFadyen, Ken (3)
Meillerts, Ludmilla
Meldrum, Patricia
Michel, Ellen
Miller, Douglas (2)
Miller, Robert T. (4)
Millis, David
Montgomery, A.
Montgomery, Jack (2)
Moodie, Charles
Moore, Graham
Morrissey, John
Nash, Brian
Newall, Lucy
Neylon, June
O’Brien, Susan
O’Neill, Harry (5)
Parkinson, John
Paterson, Ross (5)
Pawluk, Len
Pearson, Vida (3)
Pekel, Herman (2)
Perkins, J.R.
Porteous, Val
Possum, Michelle
Power, J
Quabba, Angelo
Ramsay, Christine
Redman, Patricia
Robbins, Eric L.
Robertson, Linda
Ruffin, Coral
Russell-Fletcher, Ron (4)
Salter, Ernest
Sands, Leslie (2)
Santos, Julio
Sartori, Alan (7)
Schmidt, Fred
Schmidt, V F
Schreiber, Libby
Sealy, David
Sealy, Kasey (2)
Sellwood, Jeanette
Sluga, Charles (2)
Smart, Annie
Smith, Josephine Anne
Smith, Keith
Snell, K.R.
Sommer, Suzanne
Sparks, Howard (4)
Stapleton, Dee (3)
Stephens, Judy
Sterchele, John (2)
Stocks, Geoffrey
Stratton, Brian
Streader, Alison
Suhr, Nicholas
Surgenor, Freda
Sutherland, Wilma
Syme, E.W.
Symmons, Rodney
Szymanski, Madeleine (2)
Taylor, Kevin
Thurlby, Nancy (2)
Tong, Charlie
Trembath, Ern
Trevor, James (2)
Turner, Norma
Vanderbyl, Adrianus
Vogel, Ernest
Walker, Connie
Webber, Roger (2)
Weeks, Marie (6)
Wegner, Peter
Wheeler, Charles (2)
White, Chris (2)
White, Jennifer (2)
Wilks, Maxwell
Williams, Elizabeth
Winnett, Fay
Wise, Sara
Wood, Dudley
Woodland, John
Zbukvic, Joseph (3)
Zhao, Hongbin
Zorzut-Favier, Romana