Peter & James Powditch – ‘Australian Art Review’

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TWO UP

Peter and James Powditch

Can two artists survive in the one family with sanity still intact? This issue AAR interviews Peter and James Powditch, two notable but distinctly different artists, who also happen to be father and son. Peter, who lives in Byron Bay on NSW’s north coast, has been a long-respected painter since the 1960s. His son James, a sculptor and mixed media artist who bases his work on film stills, lives and works in a converted warehouse with his young family in the inner west of Sydney. Both exhibit with Ray Hughes Gallery and have held joint exhibitions.

Victoria Hynes for Australian Art Review
Can you tell us about your relationship?

James Powditch
My father was and still is a very silly bugger – he has a real cheeky streak and a perverse sense of humour that all us kids have inherited for better or worse. He worked very hard at this thing call art – it was a real job – he went to a studio, instead of an office and we used to sing “our father who arts in his studio” not sure why but we thought it pretty funny! When I was young I worshiped him from afar and was very envious of not being a part of his immediate family. Then there were many years of what you’d call indifferent fondness which I think in recent times has evolved into a real friendship. He’s me Dad and me mate and I never tire of his endless stories and sound advice.

Peter Powditch
My strongest memory of James is of him and our other three children making adventures and occasions out of beach long-distance walks, wobbegong hunting, concerts, cubby houses, tricycle races, radio programs, stone and sand sculptures … I’d say that we are friends. I feel our relationship is better than if I had brought James up. In a way, he was left more alone to his own devices and discoveries and not overcorrected.


Victoria Hynes for Australian Art Review
Do you have a memorable incident about eachother that you recall?

James Powditch
My father once proudly showed me his ‘glue mountain’ – a piece of wood he’d been wiping his leftover glue on for the past 20 years. I was deeply impressed and also a little disturbed.

Peter Powditch
Year after year playing James at handball at Crowdy Head at Christmas and him never believing he won (last game: January 03, 2003).


Victoria Hynes for Australian Art Review
How would you describe eachother in one sentence?

James Powditch
He’s a depressed optimist and a national treasure.

Peter Powditch
James is tall, decent, generous, wary, energetic, witty, self conscious and quite rightly chuffed with what he has made of himself.


Victoria Hynes for Australian Art Review
Is there any creative rivalry between you?

James Powditch
I am in awe of his talent and dedication – he is the master and I’m just beginning. Our work is very different so I don’t think I’d ever view him as a rival. I’ve gotten used to being introduced to people – and having them reply “any relation to Peter Powditch?” – it makes me quite proud actually.

Peter Powditch
I don’t feel a rivalry with James. His works are his own and come out of his inventiveness, interests and ambitions. The very similar plastic sensibility is instinctive rather than learned.


Victoria Hynes for Australian Art Review
James, how would you describe the impact of your father’s work on you?

James Powditch
Nobody, and I mean nobody, paints summer like my father. I have a love affair with Australian summers and I’m sure a huge part of that
has come from the passionate, beautiful nature of his work. I mean they are so summer- from the landscapes, the still lifes and those
rude nude girls – that you can hear the cicadas, smell that salt and feel that old rough verandah. He’s a genius at capturing that bleached out essence.

James Powditch will be holding his next solo exhibition at Ray Hughes Gallery in Sydney in February-March 2005.

Sydney Art writer and editor, Victoria Hynes

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