MO, PB and the ti-tree 1965

The initials in the title of this painting refer to artist Margaret Olley and poet Pamela Bell. In early 1965, the fellow Queenslanders had picnicked with Fairweather under the shady trees near his hut on Bribie Island. He recorded the occasion with his box brownie camera and subsequently immortalised it in paint. The artwork counters the myth surrounding the artist’s reclusive nature. He described himself as ‘selectively gregarious’; after the bridge to Bribie opened in 1963, he regularly received visits from artworld figures. 

The year 1965 was auspicious for Fairweather. In May, the University of Queensland Press published his translation of the Chinese folktale ‘The Drunken Buddha’; and MO, PB and the ti-tree was shown in his acclaimed exhibition at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, along with works he had painted to illustrate the book. In June, Fairweather’s retrospective exhibition began its national tour at the Queensland Art Gallery.