Education : Associate Diploma of Art, (Industrial Design) Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. 1968 Trained Technical Teachers Certificate (TTTC) 1971 Graduate Diploma Teaching Gifted Children Mitchell CAE. 1988
Exhibitions : _______________________________________________________ Solo shows 1989 Desert Paintings. Framed Gallery. Darwin. NT 1990 Spinifex and Sand. Emerald Hill Gallery, South Melbourne. Victoria 1991 New works. Studio 3 Darwin NT 1994 Desert Gouaches. Aries Art Gallery, Armidale, NSW 1999 Drawings. Nightcliff Gallery, Darwin. NT 2004 A Retrospective: Desert Paintings 1988-2002 Creators Artspace Wodonga. Victoria. 2005 A Studio in Umbria-Drawings from the Sketchbook, Italy. Beehive Artspace, Albury. 2006 Moving Pictures. Paintings from NE Victoria. Creators Artspace. Wodonga. Victoria 2009 Muse Gallery Milawa. Alan Phillips New Work- 2006-2008 2010 Muse Gallery Milawa. 'A View from Above' paintings after the fires. 2012 Muse Gallery Milawa. ‘Gentle Afternoons- New Works, 2012’ 2013 Art Imitates Life. Photographs, Collages and Diary Entries. Wangaratta Art Gallery. Victoria 2014 New work- Toy Workshop Studio, Mayday Hills Beechworth 2016 New work- Finch Street Studio. Beechworth
Group Shows 1977 Selected. International Hasselblad Masters Travelling Photography Exhibition. 1978 Selected work for Alice Prize. NT 1978 Acquired for the Caltex Collection, Alice Springs 1979 Joint show (4 Artists from Alice). The Residency, Alice Springs. 1980 Joint show (4 Artists from Alice). Museums Display gallery NT, Darwin 1980 Selected work Alice Prize. NT 1981 Selected work Alice Prize. NT 1983 Selected work Alice Prize. NT 1983 Museums and Art Galleries of the NT. Darwin 1983 Museums and Art Galleries of the NT. Alice Springs. 1985 Selected work Alice Prize. NT 1986 Commonwealth Bank, Darwin 1990 Amnesty International Show, Framed Gallery Darwin. 1992 Selected Brian Lambert Art Award. Katherine NT 1992 Selected NT Art Award. Alice Springs 1993 Selected for Mornington Peninsula Spring Festival of Drawing. Victoria 1993 Bougainvillea Art Festival, Sunstorm Gallery Darwin 1993 Entered Wynn Prize. NSW Art Gallery 1994 Selected work Alice Prize. NT 1994 Aries Art Book Project. Armidale NSW 1995 White Egret Gallery Darwin 1995 Members show ‘Snakes and Serpents’. 24 hour Art. Darwin 1995 Selected 'Year of the Family' exhibition, Parliament House Darwin 1998 Exhibited Human Rights Show. Parliament House Darwin 1998 St Stephan’s Art Exhibition Melbourne Victoria. 2011 Paintworks. Recent paintings by NE Artists. Wangaratta Art Gallery 2014 Alice Springs Craft Council group show.
Acquisitions/Commissions/Permanent Collections 1979 NT Art Award. Permanent Collection 1981 NT Art Award. Permanent Collection 1995 Triptych. Commissioned by RPScherer Holdings. Melbourne 2001 Araluen Permanent Collection, ‘Skin’ 2 works on show. Alice Springs 2004 Painting commissioned by the Australian Golf Union. For display at Moonah Links, Victoria. 1996 Works on permanent display at the NT Museums and Art Gallery 1997 Selected. Wodonga Hume Building Award. 2008 Judge — Culcairn Rotary Art Show 2009 Judge — Culcairn Rotary Art Show 2009 Commission. Strathewen Community- Bush Fire Painting. Highly Commended. Wodonga Hume Building Award. 2010-2015 Various commissions for institutions and private collectors.
Alan graduated in Industrial Design from R.M.I.T. in 1969, and in his the final year won the Sebel Design Award. For the next two years Alan worked for a consultant graphic designer in Melbourne. In 1970 he trained as an Art Teacher before taking up a teaching position in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Alan lived in the Alice for ten years teaching Art at an Aboriginal College. In 1985, Alan moved to Darwin and from 1991 to 2000, worked as the Director in charge of Public Relations and the Print and Publications Unit for the Northern Territory Department of Education. In 1998 Alan took 3 months leave and traveled extensively throughout Europe.
After leaving the Public Service in 2002, Alan started his own publishing, art/ Investment consultancy and divided his time between publishing duties and painting in his Darwin studio.
In 2003 Alan and his wife sold their Darwin house and studio and returned to Italy to live and work. Alan completed a major body of work whilst living in Umbria particularly concentrating on the landscape and the surrounding hill top towns.
After returning from Europe, Alan moved to Beechworth where he built a house and studio on 18 acres of natural bush. He is presently working on his third book. His current book is about his experiences in the Northern Territory and teaching art to Aboriginal students in the 1970’s. It also touches on the beginnings of the Papunya Tula art movement. Alan also teaches drawing classes on a regular basis and conducts weekend retreats on landscape painting and drawing for beginning and experienced artists.
Alan has journeyed long to reach his current destination. The genesis for his paintings comes from, and is rooted in the deserts of central Australia. The wide open spaces littered with spinifex and long languid sand dunes stretching to the horizon spoke to him of a timeless landscape. Something happened there, which resonated with him and so changed his view of the land forever. His first encounter with this ancient land brought about a perception of the bush that has not ceased to excite him some 40 years later. He works with oil paint often making sketches on site.
Alan has been represented over the years in galleries in Melbourne, Darwin, Armidale and the Gold Coast. His work is in the permanent collection at Araluen Art Gallery in Alice Springs and private institutions and company boardrooms across Victoria.
Alan lives in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia and is married with two sons
Alan Phillips PO Box 458 Beechworth Victoria Australia. 3747. email doginute100@hotmail.com
