Bending not Breaking by Roger Beale AO

Artist Statement

This is the most important painting in this series for me. It symbolises accepting and adapting to what we cannot change, and the prospect of rebirth even in challenging environments. It is a metaphor for the wise Christian life. Stylistically those with an interest in art history will sense echoes of Delacroix’s Arab Horseman Attacked by Lion even though the subject matter is totally different.

About the Artist

Roger Beale is one of Canberra’s better known artists with numerous solo and group shows since 1984. He is classically trained (teachers include the late Betty and Roy Churcher, Melville Haysom, John Molvig and the faculty of the Florence School of Art) and paints in a realist style in the European tradition. His art is held in private and public collections around Australia and the world, including several Ambassadorial residences. Canberra’s famous Ottoman Restaurant had a notable collection of his large flower paintings.

Sasha Grishin, Canberra’s most eminent art critic recently reviewed this exhibition for Riotact. Among his comments Grishin states “…there is a slightly more sombre, more reflective mood in the exhibition, with the artist taking delight in observing a shaft of light, a solitary tree that has withstood the storm or the view into the garden surrounding his house.”  The full review can be read here.

Roger Beale retired as a Portfolio Secretary of Environment and Heritage in 2004 after many years as one of Australia’s most senior public servants to concentrate on his art practice. After retirement he served as a member of the UN IPCC, Climate Commissioner, Chair of the ACT Electoral Commission and an environmental adviser to the Chinese government. He led many inquiries and reviews and was a board member of Australia Post, the Federal Airports Corporation, Brisbane Airport Corporation, Connector Motorways and the Australian Centre for Christianity and culture.

He paints from a wheelchair as a result of childhood polio and, besides painting, writes for policy journals and advocates for the disabled. Overuse damage to his right shoulder means many of these paintings are done wholly or in part with his non-dominant left arm.