Stan De Teliga, Kydra River

Stan De Teliga, Kyrdra River & Stan-Henge Dam

The Artist

Born in Poland in 1924 and immigrating to Australia with his parents in 1926, Stan De Teliga was  a major Australian artist contemproranous with John Coburn, Jon Molvig and Robert Mitchell. De Teliga developed his own creative style at a time when modernism and post-impressionism  was broadening horizons in Australia.

Following service in the RAAF during World War Two, Stan De Teliga studied art through the Commonwealth Reconstruction Training Scheme at the National Art School in Sydney.  Having graduated, De Teliiga spent three years as an art teacher at the University of Sydney before taking on the role as Keeper of Collections at the Tasmania Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. From 1960, Stan moved back to Sydney where he became the Director of the Blaxland Art Gallery in Pitt Street and was responsible for mounting Roger Kemp's semnal one man exhibition. During this time De Teliga held around twenty solo exhibitions at the Macquarie Galleries in Sydney and Solandar Gallery in Canberra. From 1966, Stan taught at the National Art School up until 1974 and briefly becoming the Head of School. Works of art by  the National Gallery of Australia, Parliament House, Artbank, Art Galleries of New South Wales, Tasmania and Queensland. Known as a brilliant artist, teacher and administrator, Stan passed away in 1998.

The Works of art

The most striking and vivid work of art in the University of Canberra Art Collection must be the Stanhenge Dam. This is one of Stan De Teliga's later paintings, carried out in 1992. It depicts a small water-filled dam surrounded by trees and flowers. The style is very much post-impressionistic with distinct stippling. It is a style that can be seen with Van Gogh,and Saurat. Perhaps these artists and post-impressionism style influenced Stan in his formative studies. Much like Eris Fleming, De Teliga's style ranged in colour, depth and approach. Two works that portray the Kydra River in Southern New South Wales are somewhat darker and more realistic in his approach. Kydra River at Dusk  was created in 1980 and shows a tributary  in the Snow Mountains area of New South Wales, The river reflects the changing colours from the skies above bordered by rich thick vegetation.. The Kydra River Landscape on the other hand, painted in 1974, guache and ink is more abstract in approach.  What attracted De Teliga to this spot? The artist was known to have been a keen angler and perhaps by chance and opportunity of the light, the landscape was attractive enough for De Teliga to wish to paint it. It is a n area which of course, the artist got to know well. Three distinct and somewhat contrasting styles by an artist who clearly experimented with colour and light.