s:) ::Merv Skilton's A to Z of Australian Art - Artist Profile::Ken McFadyen ::

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The A to Z of ART in AUSTRALIA

with Merv Skilton

Ken McFadyen (1932 ~ 1997)

Kenneth Charles McFadyen was born in Preston, Victoria in 1932. He won his first art prize at the age of nine. Ken and his close friend Max Middleton shared a studio with their mentor Septimas Power until the death of Septimas. McFadyen studied under Sir William Dargie at the National Gallery Art School of Victoria from 1954 to 1960 and also under Murray Griffin and Charles Bush to complete his Diploma of Fine Arts & Bachelor of Fine Arts.

In 1967 he worked as a Senior Scenic Artist set designer at the ABC - Australian Broadcasting Commission. He also worked on Sir Robert Helpman's ballets and many other opera, drama and musical productions.

Alan Summer the head of the National Art School nominated Ken to to the Australian War Memorial. McFadyen was appointed as the second Official War Artist to cover the Australian involvement in the Vietnam War in 1967 with the Australian Military Services. Bruce Fletcher was the first Official War Artist in Vietnam. When Ken had completed training as a combat soldier at Canungra, Queensland, he was off to South Vietnam in August 1967 as a Lieutenant with the Royal Australian Army Education Corps.

During his seven months, McFadyen was posted at the 1st Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, with visits to the 1st Australian Logistical Support Group base at Vung Tau on the coast. He also briefly joined the RAN destroyer HMAS Hobart while it patrolled off the North Vietnamese coast.

Ken produced finely detailed drawings and paintings of activities on the army bases, helicopters.. such as his paintings "insertions" & "extractions", Caribou transport aircraft and while on platoon operations in the Phuoc Tuy province and other regions, often sketching with a rifle in his hand. After his return to Australia McFadyen received a further commission to produce a large commemorative painting of the HMAS Murchison bombing enemy positions on the Han River during the Korean War.

see the painting here

McFadyen resumed his job with the ABC and during the 1970's he experimented with abstract art but remained a realist painter. Ken was a painter, printmaker and a designer, working in the mediums of oils, water-colours, silk screens and drawing. Many of Ken's works are owned by the Australian Military Forces in barracks throughout Australia. The Australian War Memorial have many on display.

Ken McFadyen in his studio

More Ken McFadyen links:

Australian War Museum Artist Profile on Ken McFadyen here

(note: error with his D.O.B. it should be 1932)

Australian War Museum Art Study on Ken McFadyen here

See the 'Nui Dat 1968' painting by Ken McFadyen here

Victor Company Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment

Vietnam

1967

VIETNAM'S CANDID CANVAS

A transcription from EB.. EveryBody's Magazine 19 June 1968

For Ken McFadyen a theatre of war became an artist's studio

WAR IS ART... It is the skilful application of fear, hate, death, and destruction from a palette of weaponry on to a canvas of a country's history. And when the war is over, the etchings of the conflict remain for all to appraise. And there is no more dramatic way to capture war by art itself.

Official Australian War artist, Ken McFadyen, has done just that. He spent three months in Vietnam, with the rank of lieutenant, recording on canvas the Vietnam Diggers at war. He went along on combat with them. He felt the fear of ambush and uncertainty of not knowing who was friend and who was foe among the Vietnamese.

McFadyen, 36, of Donvale, Victoria, was a scenic artist with the ABC when the Australian War Memorial, Canberra, gave him the chance to paint the war. He spent six months in the war zone and brought back with him 100 paintings and sketches of the Diggers. His work, shortly to be exhibited by the Memorial, will be part of Australia's official history of the Vietnam War.

The story behind his paintings is a classic in itself. "As an artist in Vietnam it's quite a shock to the system," Ken said. "You always paint under extreme conditions. It's continually wet. In the day you slide in the mud and the slush and at night you fight for sleep with ants and bugs crawling over you," he said. "Often I asked myself what the hell I was doing there. And mostly I was close the front line."

"Most of the paintings were done while I was out with the infantry. the soldiers were all dedicated but they're only human. Things like 'that was an absolute nightmare' are everyday phrases when they describe an action. And at times the action came close to me, too. When bullets fly it's always dangerous and I remember one episode clearly. We were being shelled by mortar bombs and had to dig in. I lay in the bottom of the hole and began to pray. You've got to experience the whole thing to know what it's like. I could see the flashes and knew the shells were close. A painter, like anyone else, does his best work under good conditions - and I'm afraid a Vietnam battle-line isn't one of them."

"I would hurriedly sketch a scene while walking with the soldiers. At night I would do small oil paintings of the same picture. In later weeks I reproduced several sketches into large oil paintings. Although the climatic conditions are poor - it's too wet and hot in the monsoon season - Vietnam has a beauty all it's own. When this whole mess ends I hope to go back and settle down to some more serious painting."

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