The Voice Referendum was the stimulus for this body of work. I was saddened at the views expressed by some of those opposed to the Voice and their apparent lack of knowledge about our history as a country including the deep cultural practices, ancient knowledge and way of life of the first people of Australia. In particular, the Referendum provoked me to attempt to address ‘the great forgetting’, the violent history of colonisation including the massacre of at least 10,000 Indigenous people and perhaps as many as 60,000.

An article by Jed Perl in the New York Review of Books (Between Abstraction and Representation Nov. 24th, 2022, article New York Review of Books by Jed Perl) stimulated me to write this piece about abstraction and figuration – an issue that I have thought about for many years.

 In the subheading to his article Perl states that, “Artists today think they no longer have to choose between two opposed artistic traditions”, namely representation (or figurative art) and abstraction. Perl goes on to ask the reader ‘Where do you stand?‘

This portrait of Virginia Spate in acrylic and pastel was done in 2021, some months before she died.  It depicts three ‘faces’ of Virginia to try to capture her in a more complete way.  Here is also one of the charcoal sketches done to prepare for the painting.

Virginia was an outstanding art historian and was the first woman art historian at the University of Sydney. She wrote the most comprehensive book on Monet (The Colour of Time: Claude Monet Thames & Hudson, London, 1992), for which she received the prestigious USA Mitchell Prize, the only Australian to receive this award. In 2003 she was made a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres and in 2001 was awarded a Centenary Medal for service to Australian society and the humanities in the study of art history. 

‘The Prince in the Orchard' is on display for a limited period at Lifehouse, Missenden Rd. Its on the first floor near the blood collection area. Hope you'll have time to have a look.

Merrick is working on an orchard painting - it’s watercolours on rice paper and 9 metres long. The rice paper has been sewn to backing cloth to keep it firm.  The painting depicts the orchard in changing season.

I started on this painting about 9 years ago with the vague idea of my son Luke in a thoughtful setting with his dog Maggie.

The image of the remains of a building in Armenia from the 11th century took me by surprise when I was given a calendar by Armenian tradespeople living in Australia.

The painting began 17 years ago with a photo taken in the Chinese Gardens at Darling Harbour. Luke picked a costume of a prince in a glorious yellow gown and strolled among the rocks in a dream state.

One of Luke's early memories was seeing a camel sniffing the Great Wall of China. He was 3 years old at the time. In 1993 we lived in Shanghai for 3 months with my wife working in connection with Public Health and myself visiting artists and galleries. I had been interested in the calligraphic styles of the Chinese painters since being a Signwriter in my mid-teens. 

Recently, I finished this painting entitled ‘Arlo Valley’. I began this painting in 2003 while I was interested in the relationship between Leonardo DaVinci as a child and his mother, Catarina. My thoughts were around my own mother and how close I was to her. I was a difficult and emotional child with bouts of bad temper, while she was always patient and supportive of my creative endeavours. I exhibited other works about Leonardo and Caterina in the exhibition a Quadrocentro Narrative, however I could not resolve this painting at the time.

I recently rediscovered this very early work from 1974 called ‘Plough’. The texture of the earth was produced by carving into the wood format.

The still life (spilling into a landscape) has always interested me but I found a new depth of concentration in producing these works.

The process I used came out of a deeply stressful family situation. I worked on one work at a time with a focused discipline - layering the watercolour with numerous glazes over many days and they seemed to reach a point where they may burst at the end if I didn't stop.

September 2020

10 August 2019

This exhibition consists of drawings done in The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney in April & May 2018 and includes assemblages from earlier work which show my fascination with the tree.

15 June 2018

This work was hidden behind a power outlet in the old Danks St galleries, in Waterloo, Sydney. Unfortunately the work was lost when the galleries were demolished.

15 May 2018

Merrick Fry's installation in the foyer of the SMART Research Building at the University of Wollongong presents a surreal vision of power stations in the landscape of the future. These power stations have the beauty and grace of the temples one might see in modern day Myanmar.

11 March 2018

Woolly mammoths were drawn as part of a community campaign opposed to the construction of a Woolworths supermarket in Annandale, Sydney.

10 March 2018

These artworks were produced for the Annandale Heritage Festival and were printed on bags and tea towels. 

11 March 2018

Merrick's artwork appeared in a 1987 calendar Literary Owls celebrating a decade of Boobook Publications.

1 July 2005

"I first remembered seeing Mrs Solanov riding a bike past out house in Rankin Street. She was probably going to the library because her basket was full of books."