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Ian Duncan is a Melburnian
born and bred, but his roots are in Scotland. Both of his parents are of
Scottish origin: his father was one of six brothers: Cecil was killed in
the First World War.
The
boys were all educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh. The College,
founded in 1870, is one of the finest schools in Britian, with high
cultural and academic values. Among the Duncans' fellow-alumni are Tony
Blair and Lord Woolf, the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.
The Duncan brothers
travelled to far-flung parts of the world: one went to India, another went
into the coffee business in Kenya where he sensibly made his home in a
gentlemen's club and no doubt lived very comfortably.
Ian's father was a naval
engineer and the nature of his profession took him all over the world. Only
two of the brothers married: the others remained
bachelors: "I am the last of our line", says Ian ruefully.
Ian's parents eventually
settled in Australia, where he was born. He completed his education in
Melbourne, after which he spent a couple of years in Edinburgh before
returning to Melbourne to take up a position in display and promotion with
Hicks Atkinson, an upmarket department store.
He brought a flair for colour
and design to his displays, which won many prizes. His services were soon
much sought-after and he became Display Manager for Hilton Hosiery. Here
he was privileged to work with some of the foremost photographers and
designers in the field, and he gained a great deal of valuable experience.
One of the people with whom he
was closely associated, was Helmut Newton, the renowned fashion and art
photographer, who spent some years in Melbourne before settling in Paris
where he rose to the pinnacle of his profession.
Ian's expertise in the field
of advertising and promotion were so highly regarded that he decided to go
into business for himself. Over the next 25 years he counted among his
clients Dior, Guerlain, Helena Rubinstein and other top-flight names in
the perfume, fashion and beauty industries.
Promoting new products of this
nature is a very specialised field and one which demands special talents.
Given a large room where a new perfume is to be launched, it is no easy
feat to create an environment where all the attention is focused on one
small bottle! Ian's flair for the dramatic and his innate sense of colour
and atmosphere stood him in good stead and his promotions were so
successful that his clients inundated him with commissions.
Running a successful business
concern from home left him very little time to pursue his interest in
painting. He employed people to perform the routine tasks, but the
creative and executive sides were all concentrated upon his own
shoulders. It was not until his retirement from business that he was able
to devote to his painting the amount of time and energy that it deserved.
Ian enjoys painting
landscapes, still life and animal studies, these presented with a
contemporary feel and use of colour, mainly in oil-pastel and acrylic.
Ian is a studio painter, like
the Dutch painters of the 17th century, who did not paint
outside as the Impressionists were to do in the nineteenth century.
Vermeer's "View of Delft" and Van Goyen's atmospheric scenes of
Scheveningen (below) required many hours in the studio, working from sketches,
memory and imagination.
(the Pentax with the zoom lens was far in the future!)
Like that of
the Dutch painters, Ian's work is a combination of naer het leven
(from life) and uyt den gheest (from the spirit).
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These two
pictures, by Vermeer and Van Goyen, are good examples of how the
studio painters of the day painted the foreground from sketches they
had made at the scene, but added dramatic skies "uyt den gheest" :
from the imagination.
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In some of Ian's paintings he will start with an
existing landscape, adding a dramatic sky or changing the shapes to
become expressions of his own soaring imagination. Indeed, it is the
fusion of these two qualities that elevates many of Ian's works
beyond the boundaries of a specific time and space.
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He uses
flamboyant colours
to create works with striking impact.
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Sometimes he
eschews realism altogether and prefers to give his imagination free
rein.
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Looking at Ian's work, it is
apparent that he brings to it a lifetime's experience of the dramatic
properties of colour and composition.
Ian works in a well-appointed
studio on the upper floor of his house, with shelves full of art books and
custom-built slots for storing paintings neatly, which will be the envy of
many an amateur painter with a houseful of accumulated canvases!
Ian's house, with its
secluded courtyard, is a haven of serenity in a bustling city. He is a
keen gardener and it is obvious that he could also have made his fortune
as an interior decorator had he chosen to do so. He surrounds himself
with beautiful objects and has a little gallery off the sitting room where
many of his own and other artists' works are displayed to stunning effect.
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