2. The football match, 1966
oil over synthetic polymer paint on canvas on board
57.2 x 72.4 cm
private collection

Activities

Many of the people in Ray Crooke’s paintings are lying down, sleeping or sitting very still and contemplating. Find how many people in how many different paintings are lying down or sitting still. Why are they doing this? Is it day or night ? Do you think it is hot or cold ? Explain.

3. Drover sleeping, Cape York, c.1966
oil over synthetic polymer paint on composition board
90 x 121 cm
private collection

4. Sunday, Thursday Island, 1960
oil over tempera on composition board
73 x 118.1 cm
private collection

Activities

Many people remember Ray Crooke’s paintings for their use of colour. Look at both of these paintings and list the different colours which he has used. If you can only find one or two different colours in each painting, then count and list the number of different shades or tones of each colour which he has used. Do you think his paintings are vivid in their use of colour or subtle and controlled ? Comment on why he uses a complimentary colour, most often red, in so many of his paintings.

At school, photocopy a simple black and white sketch or print from an art book or your own folio. Try colouring in the photocopy using as many different tones of a single colour acrylic paint as you can make (this also works well with a computer paint program). Try picking out a single element in the painting with a complimentary colour that really stands out.

oil over synthetic polymer paint on canvas on composition board
73.8 x 99.6 cm
private collection

6. Waterfall, Namale Plantation (Vanua Levu), 1991
oil over synthetic polymer paint on canvas
153 x 122 cm
Collection: Suncorp-Metway Limited, Brisbane

Activities

These two pictures by Ray Crooke were painted thirty years apart. They are both island scenes and both show a number of people doing different things. Compare the paintings and write down the differences between them. Try to concentrate on the different way, or style, in which Ray Crooke has painted them. Look at his use of colour, how he has painted the figures, houses, trees and other details, and how he has organised the whole picture (composition).

Try to imagine that you are the Art Critic for a major daily newspaper. As you look at the exhibition, take notes about the paintings which you think are similar, are different or which strike you in some way. Pay particular attention to the style and subject matter of each painting, and when it was painted. At school, write a short review of the exhibition which talks about how Ray Crooke’s paintings have changed from the earliest work (1944) to the latest (1991).

‘ Painted at Yorkeys Knob; a friend posed for the figure in the foreground. In many of Crooke’s late works, the seductive naivety and misty atmosphere of his earlier paintings give way to a harder and more precise style. The static and monumental figures in Sunday morning are memorable for their tactility and the uncompromising clarity with which they, and the decorative folds of drapery, are described.’ - Sue Smith, 1997

8. Sunday morning, 1988
oil over synthetic polymer paint on canvas
122 x 153 cm
courtesy of Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane