I was surprised to find, in the exhibition ‘Moist’
at NGA, a huge ‘superbly rendered’ watercolour by Neville Cayley
called ‘Australian Gamebirds’. It was painted in 1888, 6 years after his
arrival in Australia, and
consists of 19? game species, mostly in a heap on a
tiled floor. It was featured and
copied in the latest edition of ‘Artonview’, NGA members’
quarterly magazine which I’ll bring to the next COG meeting for anyone
interested to see or to attempt identification – quite
a challenge with some with only heads and tails poking out and also allowing
for possible fading of colours. The
birds had all been painted from life – or rather death – having been
shot for the purpose of the painting.
The older (should that be more senior) Coggans will be
familiar with Cayley’s ‘What Bird is That?’
– it was one of the first books I acquired after arriving in Aust. 50
years ago and I still have the same now very dilapidated copy.
Phyl Goddard
