Walter Magilton left school early to become a dairy farmer in Western Victoria, returned to school and became a secondary school art teacher, eventually becoming an artist full-time, a painter, sculptor and jewellery maker. His paintings are in collections overseas and Australia. He teaches art from his Stony Creek Studio in Warrandyte and married to contemporary installation artist Denise Keele-bedford. Contents Newspaper article: "Walter Magilton: More to life than Maggie", Green Valley, section of Diamond Valley News, no date, details of Walter Magilton's career, his tame blackbird Maggie. Newspaper article: "Walter Magilton - Warrandyte", Network, October 1987, details of Walter Magilton's career, achievements and painting style. Newspaper article: "A modern twist on reality", Diamond Valley Leader, no date, Walter Magilton's exhibition at Bridges Restaurant, Hurstbridge. He collaborates with his wife Denise Keele-bedford, a contemporary installation artist. Newspaper article: "Walter Magilton: A Life's Journey in Art", Manningham and Nillumbik Bulletin, issue 51, July 2024. Walter Magilton to exhibit at Monsalvat.Newspaper clippings, A4 photocopies, etcwalter magilton, warrandyte victoria, stony creek studio warrandyte, denise keele-bedford, bridges restaurant hurstbridge, montsalvat, cowley's creek near camperdown, lou evans, carey grammar school, geelong teachers college, charles bush, lenton parr, william carey, mg car club, donvale christian college, alison magilton, warrandyte, bib silwell silverstone motors

Vassilieff dynamited rock from his own property to build his house. Stonygrad is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p135 Stonygrad, the home built by Expressionist painter and sculptor Danila Vassilieff, is reminiscent of a grotto and in parts, of a sculpture. Vassilieff, who amongst others influenced painter Sydney Nolan and Albert Tucker, was a member of the artists group the Angry Penguins.1 He was also a highly regarded art teacher at the nearby Koornong Experimental School and taught at Eltham High School. Art critic Robert Hughes described Vassilieff’s painting as ‘lyrical without social commentary’, and said Vassilieff was ‘the most oddly neglected artist in recent Australian History’.2 Vassilieff, who was born in 1897 in Russia, had an unusually adventurous life before he settled in Warrandyte. The 12th of 18 children, he lived on a farm in the Don Basin. Vassilieff trained with the Imperial Military Academy at St Petersburg and fought in World War One as an officer in the White Russian Army against the communists. In 1920 he was captured, then escaped from prison, stole a horse and rode bareback 150 miles to the Black Sea, helped at first by Tartar freebooters. He then travelled to India, Shanghai and arrived in Queensland as a refugee in 1923 where he began painting. He and his wife Anisia bought a sugar farm near Ingram,3 and later he constructed railway lines at Mataranka, in the Northern Territory.4 In 1929 Vassilieff went to Brazil for formal art training from former fellow-officer Dmitri Ismailovich, but he soon left to travel up the Amazon River. He then worked as a sidewalk artist in the West Indies and travelled for two years in England, France and Spain. In 1937 he arrived in Melbourne where he lived until his death in 1958. His first major Australian series was the Carlton streetscapes and from 1951 he sculpted in local hard limestone.5 Vassilieff rejected all dogma and regarded religious subjects as suitable only for decorative arts. In 1944 he helped defeat a communist attempt to take over the Contemporary Art Society. For a short time, from around 1955, Vassilieff taught at various Victorian schools.6 The Angry Penguins painted mainly between 1937 and 1947, and included Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan and Joy Hester. The group formed as they felt isolated from European thought and art (including Surrealism) from which their work was derived. They were also angry at what they considered to be the complacency and insularity of their society. They maintained Australians at first were scarcely aware of the threats of the Wall Street Crash and Hitler and were little interested in the Spanish Civil War. The Angry Penguins also objected to the White Australia Policy. Hughes said although most of the Melbourne Expressionists in the 1940s were unskilled and their work crude in style, they helped jolt Australian painting from its pastoral complacency. Their style influenced nearly every painting produced by significant figurative artists in Melbourne in the 1950s such as Charles Blackman. From 1939 Vassilieff built Stonygrad, mainly with local stone. The house stands at the end of a private road surrounded by trees with the quiet occasionally broken by the sounds of bellbirds. To build his house Vassilieff dynamited rock and cut trees from his own property. The original section of the three-level house is of irregular-shaped pieces of solid stone, exposed inside like the exterior. Vassilieff later built sections with timber and brick. Inside is rustic and cave-like, and several rooms are linked by arched openings with no doors. One undulating wall was carved out of rock from which two sculptured heads protrude. Several ceilings are of rough-hewn logs and the built-in table and bookcase are rough, as is a timber ladder leading to a bedroom. Not for the elderly or unsteady! Yet the general impression in the muted light is beautiful, with artistic originality.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, danila vassilieff, hamilton road, north warrandyte, stonygrad

Rodney SCHERER (24/02/1951 - ) Born Campbelltown, NSW Rodney Scherer studied at the National Art School, East Sydney Technical College (1968 -1972); the Canberra School of Art (1973-75) Dip, Art Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education (1978); and a Grad, Dip, Art (Painting) at Gippsland Institute of Advanced Educaton (1985). He curated a number of significant exhibitions for the Gippsland region of Victoria, including the first national travelling exhibition of regional artist "Contemporary Gippsland Artists 1990-92". Rodney Scherer is a painter, printmaker, sculptor, Curator, retired Public Gallery Director, and fine art consultant. He was the founding chair of the Art Resource Colelction, arcYinnar. He was an Artist in Residence at teh Gippsland TRades and Labour Council, Yallourn Power Startion in 1991, and site manager of the Fifth Sculpture Triennial at the 1992 Melbourne International Arts Festival. In 2021 he curated "The Happy Wanderer. Victoria Cobb 1876-1945" at the Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, Victoria.This work was purchased by the donor from Rodney Scherer's solo exhibition 'Ubiquitous Orange' at Sparc Gallery, Yinnar.rodney scherer, alumni, sculpture, available