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English-born John Glover showed an early interest in wildlife and was to be found sketching birds and nature as a child. He also began painting in oil and watercolour while at the school. For the next nine years or so, Glover exhibited his paintings developed from sketching tours. Glover is renowned for his work on the Tasmanian landscape. Previous English painters had tended to paint Australian scenes as ‘English country gardens’ but he captured the light and bush as it was. However, his realistic views were not always translated to his work depicting the local populace. He is now well recognised in Australia with the John Glover Society being established in August 2001.

Aspiring to be a poet, Cecil John Brack hadn’t decided to become an artist until he came across a reproduction of Vincent van Gogh’s The Night Café in a local bookshop. He was a late-blooming artist. His art studies were interrupted in World War II, and returned to his studies after the war. But during his time in the army, Brack developed his artistic skills by creating drawings and sketches of his comrades. His painting, The New House, typified the culture of the Menzies Era. This was regarded as a “golden age” for Australia. His final work was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and was a finalist for the Archibald Prize.