Vale: Max Watters OAM

Iconic artist, Max Joseph Watters OAM, died on Saturday, aged 83.

By Roger Skinner

I first met Max in 1979, when his brother Frank (of the old Watters Gallery in Sydney) was visiting town and doing preparatory work for the Upper Hunter Environmental Exhibition. I had been introduced to Frank by my friend Garry Philp a local artist, Frank had hired me to be the official photographer on Garry’s recommendation, for the planned, four exhibitions of the show in Muswellbrook, Scone, Denman and Singleton. I had agreed to meeting at the Watters home in Ford Street.

I arrived and was ushered into the most cramped space I think I have ever seen, the entire house was crammed with paintings four and five deep around the wall of every room of the house! Paintings by some of Australia’s most significant contemporary artists, Tony Tuckson, Grace Cossington Smith, Richard Larter, James Clifford, Euan McLeod, the list goes on. I marveled at this and the casual nature that Max thought about the works, to me it was at once marvelous and scary… what if the place burned down!

Atrist, Max Watters. Photo: Roger Skinner, 2004.

Eventually after some quite some discussions with Muswellbrook Shire Council re the housing of the works, Max donated all the works to council for the Muswellbrook Regional Art Centre and in 2004 they were all added into the collection and housed in the arts centre, where on rotation, selections of works from the collection would be exhibited in the Max Watters Gallery. I feel privileged that I was allowed to curate a number of exhibitions in the space based around various themes.

Whilst building his collection of prominent artists Max also with his commitment to local artists was acquiring work by local artists as well. Works by Caroline Southcombe, Dorothy Burns, Noel Benge, Charlie and David Teer, Cathie Brooker, Betty Gleeson, Teresa Byrne, Charlotte Drake Brockman and even some Roger Skinners. In fact, Max bought my work Voice Of after it won Scone Art prize in 1988 so I figured I must be doing something right. I was with him last Thursday for most of the day and he pulled a wad of notes out of his wallet and handed them to me and said this is for your work that was Highly Commended in the Local Art Awards, I want it for my collection… Cheers Max

Max would have an exhibition every couple of years at the Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre prior to it being showed at Watters Gallery in Sydney, to give the locals first chance at a purchase, these shows were always very popular and sold well which in turn allowed Max to pour more money into acquiring work for his collection.

He would begin work travelling into the field and selecting rural vernacular buildings as his favoured subjects, he would work up preparatory sketches and then from there chose one to work up into paintings. His painting was in the naïve school with finely worked detail in a flat plane, with stubble grass made by dipping a brush into the top of the paint tube and then applying it to the board as a lump. His high key, optimistic, ever blue skies with fluffy clouds are also a hallmark of his work as were his leaning fence posts are bare dead trees in impenetrable black, or as classic almost balls on sticks full of rigorous growth.  In 1988 one of Max’s views of the town was used as the basis for the Bicentennial tapestry, which now hangs in the council offices.

In terms of him giving back to his community as if he hadn’t done enough by donating the collection to the community, Max also ran art classes for many many years all free of charge for lots of people teaching at McCully’s Gap, Denman, Kayuga the PCYC in Muswellbrook and other places as well as the disability centre, Challenge, which eventually lead to him being awarded the OAM which was preceded by him being the Muswellbrook Cultural Citizen of the Year in 2002 in recognition of his selfless work.

As he grew older this became less frequent gradually withdrawing to just painting for himself, indeed after a recent bought in hospital he came home and commenced working again this however due to his weakened state, finally stopped and eight or so works lean against the kitchen wall unfinished…

Max will be remembered forever by the thousands who went though his art classes, those who met him at gallery functions or just down the street. Go well old friend.