CALLINS Charles

Panorama from the Bluff, Cairns Railwa

Charles John Newcombe Callins was born in Hughenden, North Queensland, in 1887. His profession was given as a printer when he enlisted at Cairns during World War I and served in the 52nd Battalion A.I.F. He worked in the printing offices for many years, retiring from The Brisbane Telegraph in 1947. Sandra Warner stated that Callins largely recorded his tales until he was inspired to illustrate one of his own descriptions of a school teacher being rescued after falling from a ferry.  It was then that he began to paint.

With the demise of representation and drawing as a major criteria for appreciation of a work of art in the 1950s and 60s the naïve paintings of Charles Callins and James Fardoulys, two of Queensland’s most significant primitive painters, began to be appreciated, especially by contemporary artists. It is no surprise to discover Charles Callins’s exhibiting career began in 1953 after Dr Gertrude Langer praised the work of the modern primitives in the exhibition of 'French Painting Today’ at the Queensland Art Gallery. She remarked:

'These untutored painters who combine the freshness of a childlike vision and feeling with a natural gift for design will win the hearts of people here as they have done in other lands’.

Gentle repose, his first exhibited work, was included in the second annual exhibition of Queensland Artists of Fame and Promise later the same year. Callins continued to submit his paintings to local prize competitions somewhat sporadically over more than two decades. His first solo exhibition was held at the Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, in 1957 and his work was included in group exhibitions of works by like artists at Gallery A, Sydney, in 1967 and 1970; the White Studio Gallery, Adelaide, in 1968; and the Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne in 1971 and 1981. It was frequently mentioned in reviews of these exhibitions that, while some of the artists were not 'true’ naïve artists, this criticism was never directed at Callins.

Reference: http://www.daao.org.au/bio/charles-callins/#artist_biography  Downloaded 9 May 2012

Picture Reference: http://menziesart.sitesuite.cn/cgi/dmcat.cgi?rm=display_lot&item_id=7998  Downloaded 9 May 2012