Tony Slater

"Plenty of people have painted the Australian bush before, but nobody
puts paint to canvas quite like Tony Slater. His touch is distinctive.
So is his sense of color and light. Astonishing how true it feels - how
utterly lacking in meretriciousness or false feeling. These paintings
are gutsy, keenly observed, cliché-free. They look to me like Slater’s
best work, which is saying a lot. There is no rhetorical swagger or
romantic exaggeration. The choice of subject matter, the unusual
perspectives, the close-in cropping – it all feels fantastically fresh.
It’s an unlikely achievement when you consider the history of Australian
landscape painting, teeming as it is with contenders. Note, especially,
the astonishing interplay between shadows, trees, and rocks (here is an
artist who had really got to grips with Australian sun-dazzle). Also,
Slater’s brilliant ability to capture the textures of rocks and earth,
and the look of trees against slopes and skies. At times, it’s like
Courbet, Corot, Constable, and Fred Williams all rolled into one.
No question about it: Tony Slater is the real thing."
- Sebastian Smee, 2011, Art Critic, The Boston Globe. 

Slater studied at the Royal College of Art in the
early sixties and exhibited in solo and group shows in London and Europe. His work is held in private collections in Europe, America,
Australia and Hong Kong.  He has been selected to hang as a finalist in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on three
occasions.