An Interest In Portraits

For this talented painter in Western Australia, early experience in various commercial aspects of art has somehow morphed into a great enthusiasm for his detailed portraiture work.

- Trevor Lang

Stan Overington was born in Kojonup, a town in Western Australia’s south-west. He was the only child of parents who operated a bakery and tearooms.

“Much of my childhood was spent finding things to occupy myself,” he says. “I have always loved drawing and we were fortunate enough to have a ‘resident artist’, Mr. Battie, who (I suspect as a favor to my mother) agreed to give me lessons. His classes were for adults – and as I was about seven at the time, I received much assistance from the others in the group. I attended for about three months or so, and during that period I learned the importance of accuracy in the presentation.”

Those early lessons have been carried through into his work today.

“Art has always played a part in my life,” he admits. “Sometimes it has been all-consuming; sometimes it has been pushed aside because of other commitments.”

Stan’s first commercial step into the art world was to find old bikes, restore them, paint them; and finish them with dagger line designs. He describes this phase in his early career as ‘great training in the use of liner brushes and accuracy in fine work’!