Dailan Pugh True Conservationist

Efforts to conserve and understand marine environments have led this artist to use art to promote their conservation. He also uses marine environments to develop his oil painting style.

- Trevor Lang

Dailan Pugh was born in 1955 in Melbourne, Victoria; and raised in a shack built by his parents in bushland at Dunmoochin, near Hurstbridge on the outskirts of the city. The shack evolved into a rambling house as he grew.

He currently lives and works at Byron Bay in north-east New South Wales.

“I have drawn and painted all my life,” the artist reveals. “I had some tuition from my father Clifton Pugh; but no formal training. Being raised in an artistic environment and spending lots of time in the bush provided my artistic education.”

Growing up, playing and exploring in the bush, as well as raising injured and orphaned native animals, has made this man passionate about Australia’s natural environment. A strong nexus between art, the environment and conservation has directed him down life’s path.

“It was an aesthetic fascination with rainforests that drew me to north-east New South Wales,” he says. “My need to learn about my subject led me to learn about its species, ecology and fragility; thereby diverting me into becoming an active forest conservationist. After a decade as a volunteer co-ordinator with the North East Forest Alliance, I spent some years trying to improve management of native vegetation on private lands, creating sanctuary zones in the Cape Byron Marine Park; and on conservation issues around Byron Bay. I used my recent explorations of Australia’s arid lands as my inspiration to return to artwork – first with pastels and then gouache. Over the last two years, I have begun oil painting – using the marine environment as my muse.”

The natural environment, devoid of obvious human artefacts, has always provided Dailan Pugh with artistic inspiration … although he also enjoys drawing the human body from life.