GORDON SHEPHERDSON

LATE IN 2017, ARTIST PROFILE VISITED GORDON Shepherdson in suburban Brisbane. He is now frail, and has recently moved into a nursing home facility, but his studio remains as it was. Gordon’s son, Nathan Shepherdson, breathes deeply as we walk in the studio door, saying, “I miss that smell of fresh linseed. It was part of the feeling of being here – always.”

There is a humility in this building that is integral to the man. It is your archetypal 1960s Brisbane backyard shed, small, cramped, with high windows and the door covered to exclude the light. Stacked racks of paintings occupy the back wall. “The box”, purpose-built decades ago by Shepherdson’s brother-in-law to store his work away from