Outside looking in: paintings by Greg Hansell

Earth pastel painter Greg Hansell returns to The Mint with a wonderful new exhibition of paintings that take you into the rooms of house museums managed by the HHT, including Elizabeth Bay House, Susannah Place and Vaucluse House.

Greg's images capture the imagination and wonder that one experiences when peeking through an open doorway or window, with each room telling a new story of its history and former inhabitants.

Born in Goulburn in 1949, Greg Hansell studied art at St George Technical College in the late 1970s before undertaking study tours of Europe in 1982 and 1985. He is currently Fellow, Council member, teacher and Art School Director at the Royal Art Society of New South Wales. He has been a finalist 19 times in both the Archibald and Wynne Prizes and was a finalist in the 2005 Dobell Drawing Prize.

Greg crushes rocks and clays to make his own pigments and, with no added binders, creates earth pastels with colour permanence of the highest rating. He says that most of his work has been inspired by the Renaissance masters. He relishes detail and loves the serenity of these houses and the Victorian clutter of their interiors - their textures and the information they provide. His 2006 exhibition Inside looking out was so successful that HHT Members have once again commissioned Greg to produce a collection of works, which beautifully portray the properties as they appear today.