PAUL PARTOS : THE JOURNEY OF A PAINTER

I FIRST MET PAUL PARTOS, ROBERT

Jacks and Gareth Sansom when I entered the second year painting class at RMIT in 1961. One floor above were the senior students George Baldessin, Lesley Dumbrell and Wendy Stavrianos. At a lower level was Peter Corlett studying sculpture. The explanation for this gathering of young talent was that RMIT was the only school where you could complete a Diploma of Art at that time. Paul at that stage was thoughtful, very gifted and intense.

In those days works of art, as we understood them, were all made by hand; drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture with no mediation of technology at all. To become an artist you had to find yourself and form your own artistic identity. It seemed to us that to become a painter was something wonderful.