BUILDING, PAINTING, TRANSLATING : 1958-61
Above: Ian Fairweather, Gethsemane, 1958. Oil on cardboard on board. 145.5 x 198 cm. Gift of Philip Bacon AM through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019. (See letters 113, 122, 144.) Previous spread: Ian Fairweather, Monastery, 1961. Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard mounted on composition board. 144.5 x 185.5 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Purchased 1976. © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019. (See letters 162, 268, 270.) First spread: Ian Fairweather, Kite Flying, 1958. Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard laid down on composition board. 129.4 x 194 cm. Purchased 1985 with the assistance of funds raised through a special Queensland Art Gallery Foundation appeal and with a contribution from the Queensland Art Gallery Society. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. © Ian Fairweather/DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019. (See letter 113.)
Letter (four pages), Ian Fairweather to Annette Waters (Queenie), 18 April [1958], with drawings of houses that Fairweather had built for himself in different locations in the Philippines and Australia. Fairweather collection. © Ian Fairweather / DACS. Copyright Agency, 2019. Letter 114.
1 JANUARY 1958 – 28 DECEMBER 1961
FAIRWEATHER CONTINUED to live on Bribie Island throughout this period and feelings of relative stability, arising from settled living and a steady income from the sale of paintings, had a noticeable effect on his art. He started to work on a larger scale, creating ambitious multi-panel paintings, and the addition of PVA glue to gouache produced a more stable medium. Important paintings included Last Supper (1958), Gethsemane (1958), Kite Flying (1958) and Monastery (1961), which were acclaimed in glowing reviews.
Depressed for six months in 1959–60, Fairweather observed that his only progress was in Chinese. He finished translating the text which would eventually be published in 1965 as The Drunken Buddha, and he worked on the erotic novel Chin Ping Mei and a collection of Chinese folk tales. Procuring new works to translate was a continuing challenge, as was the typing of the handwritten manuscripts, and efforts to secure interest in publication, all done by mail with support from his young friend Marion Smith, his niece ‘Pippa’ and others. The exhibition of abstract paintings at Macquarie Galleries was a success, the result perhaps of the hard work that had also caused his depression and from which he reported a difficulty in ‘coming back’.
In 1961 Fairweather was included in the landmark exhibition ‘Recent Australian Painting’ curated by Bryan Robertson at the Whitechapel Gallery in London, an indicator of the ever higher regard in which his work was held. The expansion of housing developments and the construction of the Bribie Island Bridge prompted Fairweather to start building a new house in a more remote location, which he called Mei Lin (Beautiful Forest). Letters and books sent from family members revived memories of holidays on the island of Sark and his time in Norway looking for the enchanted forest evoked in Knut Hamsun’s novel Pan. Reading continued to be a vital part of Fairweather’s life, transporting him to other worlds.
111. To Annette Waters
Dear Q– Starting the New Year with a good loaf–I fear–Got up very early and went for the annual pilgrimage to the Red Dragon Spring–(Hung lung chuang)1–but this year instead of broiling hot as it always has been–pouring with rain–The track was overgrown and hard to follow in the rain I got bushed several times–In spite of the long drought the spring is flowing as good as ever–and though bushfires have been all round it and killed many fine old trees–the red dragon is still intact It is a big tree that must have fallen in its youth over the spring–and now lies on the ground like a long dragon–with three large trees growing out of its back
[Drawing of tree and spring]
Well it was a miserable cold walk and even the dragon looked a bit pale–not his usual ruddy self–hope it is not a bad omen–and now too lazy to do anything but read–Fortunately I have two nice books Waley’s life and times of Po Chu I.2 Poor Po like you was always getting shifted around from house to house–getting seperated from his friends–writes–the autumn moon to night reminds me of the time that you and I–etc. etc–Poem after poem–all regrets for the bright days at Chang an the capital then 700–800 A.D–In later life he took to Buddhism and no attachment to things of this world–but whether he was any happier–that way–I dont know for I haven’t yet finished the book–Waley by the way is our only real expert on Chinese and the curious thing is he has never been in China3–The other book is Scientific American–Reader–A collection of articles published over the last 5 years in the Scientific American Magazine–Not so heavy as it sounds–for they are written in nontechnical language–for the general reader–a book really worth having–So I ought to be happy but this rain is very cold and miserable–and the grey sky–weighs heavy–I cant help thinking that Bribie–will remain always–as it is now–a home for the aged
We have electric light now–and at night the childrens roundabout–a few shops and the cinema–are lit with coloured lights even one Neon sign over the pastrycook shop makes a brave show of progress–but Bribie doesn’t change–This side of it at least is firmly in the hands of the aged–People just come here to die in peace–to play bowls till they drop–All progress is banished to the other side–where there is a hotel and people can get drunk if they want to–The awful respectability of the bowling clubs–where they all wear white and carry a yellow duster–like inmates of an institution–Iam sure the only virtue of this bowling is the number of pitches that can be crowded together on a small lawn–croquet, a much better game, needs elbow room its not the game–its the crowding together in stiff formal clothes–they like–the mere sight of them gives me an attack of claustrophobia–Delighted to find that Po after rising early, also used to go to bed again–till noon–so feel in good company–can loaf with a good conscience–signing off Yrs Ian
1 Fairweather names the spring in Chinese, Hong long chuan, perhaps inspired by Hei long tan or Black Dragon Pond outside Peking, which he may have visited.
2 Arthur Waley, The Life and Times of Po Chü–I 772–846 A.D. (1949).
3 Arthur Waley, Assistant Keeper of Oriental Prints and Manuscripts at the British Museum, 1913–29, lecturer in the School of Oriental Studies, University of London, where Fairweather had studied, and one of the greatest English translators of classical Chinese and Japanese literature.
112. To Annette Waters
Dear Q. Was away yesterday–really lost in the bush–I had gone into the swamp looking for a special long straight pole for the new house–(I cant go on calling it ‘new house’–must think of a name–Have thought of Mei lin 美林 beautiful forest–how does it sound?)
Well, when I had found the pole and cut it–I no longer knew where I was. Started out blazing a trail–for I wanted to come back for the log–but it went on and on–and it was getting dark–at last spied some high fir trees on a knoll which I recognised–but for that I might have been in the swamp all night–Although I was only a short distance from Mei lin I had started going right away from it deeper and deeper into the swamp–and I pride myself on my bush sense–Today went back, found the blazed trail–and lost it–and never found the log either–only came back with both shins barked raw from stumbling through thick brush–more befoozeled than ever–Will have to learn the geography around Mei lin–Well the Govt. has started putting up blocks of land for auction–start next month–The price has gone up– 220 down and 800 ‘improvements’ within a year–I dont know whether I’m in the black yet or not–Have to hurry with Mei lin–
I’m sending the China Reconstructs–because of the cover–if you flatten it out–such goo–such schmalz–such cat’s pyjamas could only have come out of China–Also was interested to read that the old Emperors chef is working again at the Fang Shan restaurant1–My house was in the northwest corner of Peking the Palace as you know occupies most of the middle with a nice lake–The foreign quarter was in the South east quarter–as sketch– [map showing ‘ME’; ‘Pei Hai’; ‘Palace’; ‘Legation Quarter’; ‘Tartar City’; ‘Tien Chiao Fair’] So I was as far from my brethren as I could get–but often would go to the South east corner for the cinema–or to eat in the Tien Chiao Fair grounds2–also mentioned in map [note in margin]–under awnings–which I loved–Usually I would go by the Pei Hai Lake–Desolate in Winter time But in Summer they drive in bamboo posts and build platforms out all over the lake–where people sit and eat under awnings–all among the lotuses–The Fang Shan restaurant is one of these bamboo booths over the water3–The place I loved best in Peking–Ah well–leaves a hole in ones heart–must be many holes in many hearts–for old Peking
1 China Reconstructs was first published in 1952 by the China Welfare Institute, Beijing, edited by Israel Epstein and his wife, Elsie Fairfax-Cholmeley. It was printed in English and other foreign languages to introduce China to the outside world. See Chin Shou-shen, ‘“A Hundred Flowers” in Peking’s Restuarants’, China Reconstructs, January 1958. The cover of the issue is a late-nineteenth-century New Year woodblock print of boys with attributes symbolising prosperity and happiness.
2 Tianqiao, a market zone in the Chinese city where performers of all kinds entertained crowds.
3 The Fangshan teahouse was opened in 1925 on the northern shore of Beihai Lake, originally part of the palace complex, by chefs who had worked in the imperial kitchen.
113. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith– Thanks for your letter though when the postman is late–it is like when the tide goes down–the old rocks begin showing up all around–As for a financial statement–please dont bother–when one lives so close to the old rocks–it’s no pleasure to contemplate them in detail–one is thankful to forget about them for a bit–I am sending down herewith 4 paintings1–they are in pieces I would like to have fixed them up here myself but here in the bush–simply not the means to make a good job of it–but hope you wont find it necessary to stick them on masonite or anything solid–or divide them by bars–I have marked them on the back with a circle round the centre and the arrows point up– [plans of two artworks, one in three pieces and the other in four] to help assemble them–The one in 3 pieces–3As–the others 4Bs etc Bit of a jigsaw but I hope not too complicated I am afraid packed up in this damp weather they will get mouldy–but it brushes off if rubbed with a piece of flannelette and leaves no trace–the surface is pretty tough and more or less watertight–they are not painted with gum–but synthetic latex–should be a good deal more permanent than oil–because inorganic–To read that Sun critic you would think he was trying to stop sales–‘They wont last’–in large print–and flaking off 2–under ordinary circs–that cant happen What I suggest being done to them–laid face down on a flat surface and pinned–Then given a coat of latex adhesive–There is a good one called Lamenex adhesive which I have tried but it is expensive3–could be used on edges where important to stick tight–the rest with a cheaper kind–Preferable to glue–will insulate the back from damp and insects–
Then sheets of chipboard–also coated with adhesive–Stuck down crosswise over the joins–and all over the back–
Then a stretcher as for a canvas–but with crosspieces where the joins are–tacked to this 6 in strips chipboard–coated adhesive–pressed down on back picture then will be much as a canvas on a stretcher–Treated so–it should not be so expensive–and not so much of a white elephant–I guess they are really murals–in feeling as well as size–and not at home in living rooms–Sorry they had to be so large but that is the way it was–what they are, is not very clear–the intention is background music–one can get so terribly tired of a melody if one hears it over and over again–Well I hope they arrive safe–They have given me hell–They are an attempt to climb up to something out of something else–Just so they dont flop–Please let me know as soon as they arrive–I shall be very anxious to hear–Yrs Sincerely
I Fairweather
P.S. A final coat of latex paint on the back would be a further insulation–
1 Last Supper (1958), on three sheets of cardboard; and Gethsemane (1958), Gamelan (1958) and Kite Flying (1958), on four sheets of cardboard. All were later mounted on hardboard.
2 James Gleeson, ‘An Artist Minus a Soul: Fine Work Spoilt’, Sun, 20 November 1957. Gleeson was a surrealist painter as well as art critic.
3 Laminex, a high-strength polychloroprene rubber-based adhesive and sealant.
114. To Annette Waters
C/o PO Bribie– 10/April [1958]
Dear Q– Quite laid out to night–This Australian wood is so heavy that it sinks in water–so you can imagine–quite a small tree to carry and set up is hard labour–Ive just been thinking this will be the 6th house I have built–The first one was in Zamboanga it was of bamboo–with a nepa leaf thatch–The problem was to use the bamboo which grew all around. You cant joint bamboo and nail it together–the natives use green vines to bind the joints–it shrinks as it drys–but I could get no green vines–so I split the bamboos–and made a sort of laminated arch–bound with string–the house was made of these arches.
[Diagram showing two-level arch dwelling]
My hands got blistered from splitting the bamboos and I got white lead into the blisters–that is how I lost the end of my little finger–The next house was in Cairns just before the war–It was built on the side of a steep hill–so built a little wall
[Diagram of foundation built into slope] to stand it on–I hadn’t much idea of the design to start with but improvised as it went along–so it turned out something like this– [diagram of dwelling with three connected structures] The walls were of coconut palm leaves–actually the little wing was just to sleep–the studio was in the big top and stretched away out behind as I have tried to show–As soon as I went off to the war, the neighbours fell upon it and tore it limb from limb–the only design I ever attempted–the rest have been sheer utility The 3rd was built on the mud flats in Cairns the tide came over them about a foot deep–So it stood on stilts in the mud–again the material was bamboo–The frame was wood–but there were no nepa leaves to make a thatch– [diagram of house] so it had to be bamboo–which caused many sleepless nights–the idea was to use it like Chinese tiles– [diagram of interlocking ceramic roof tiles] over and under–how to fix them like that is quite a problem–You cant drive nails into them without splitting them and making them leak–well I never did get to live in it the sandflies drove me out–and trying to work in mud over the ankles has the most depressing effect on one–Well for the fourth house–I was too tired to design anything–there was an old tree growing in a sand bank in the mangroves I hauled poles and leaned them up against it like an Indian tepee–then cut away the old tree in the middle–and covered the poles with ti tree bark tied on with camouflage tape–it looked quite gay the camouflage tape was all sorts of colours Well the 5th is the old grass hut here of which I have sent you a photo–The outbuilding is designed to have a flat roof one day to be covered with asbestos tiles if I can ever afford it Very ugly I fear–but to start with the roof is to be paper–so has to be high pitched so [arrow leading to diagram of pitch roof of structure] it is rather sad to come down to using some manufactured material for a roof it has always been something of a triumph to use what was to be found in the bush–at least, if this one is an eyesore it wont worry anyone but me–for it is well back amongst the trees and out of sight–The village is growing and houses creeping nearer–all the time–already I can hear them hammering They are selling the land in ¼ acre lots–you can have them freehold for about £4 a year–but you have to put up a house within 3 years of value not less than £300–They are trying to persuade me to take a lot–and become respectable–Hey ho!–to live in a village after all these years–even if I could afford the £300–cant see myself doing it–Trouble is, if the village goes on growing–my lot here may soon be up for sale–and then nothing for it but build yet another house–but no use to cross bridges before one comes to them–we are having the best weather of the year just now–cool dry Autumn we have had 33 in of rain since Jan 1–the average for the year is 41–so we’ve ‘had it’ as you might say–dry from now on–So paper should be all right for the roof
So long Yrs Ian
115. To Marion Smith
Bribie June something [postmarked 17 June 1958]
Dear Marion I should have written before but been very tied up and now frozen up–The cold is vile–when the wind blows through my bird cage house I’m good for nothing at all–Always tempted at this time to go north–but now another reason–the books have failed–Till now some good angel at the public library has kept me supplied with really readable books but I think at Christmas time she must have gone away and the one in her place is no angel, sends me trype–That–and I hear some friends are making coral and shell jewelry up on the Reef–All a big temptation to go and get warm–Always wanted to try an aqualung–oh well–67 one doesn’t like moving anymore–unless one has to also began translation of a Chinese book Just possibly might bring in a little cash if ever published–In this connection do you know of a stenog. who would type out the manuscript for me–They charge so much a 1000 words–if hear let me know–Must stop I’m freezing Yrs Ian
116. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion– Herewith 3 chapters–But please dont type them yourself–I would much rather pay to have them done by a steno–punctuation and capital letters will need to be put in–etc–I have little idea about it–and if they are wrong can swear at a steno but cant swear at you–Please have 2 copies made and return with the manuscript–for correction–I doubt if any publisher would care to publish it–and if you read it you will be frightfully bored–but it fills in some odd moments and is teaching me Chinese–There are some little bits of it that are nice–but it is a strange mixture of fantasy and filth–an unusual aspect of Buddhism–Known I believe as Zen–They value godliness above holyness–if you know what I mean
Well here it is–dont blame me for what’s said–I just try to translate as truthfully as I can–Starting at the end of the book because–just beginning to get the hang of it Will return to the beginning later–There is no hurry–Will be a long time before I have some more ready–Already spent too much time on it–Bye now with apologies
Yrs Yan
117. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion Very glad to hear from you I was just a bit worried–it seemed a long time–I had no idea it was so expensive–When in London I got a book typed–50,000 words–I took it to a typewriting school–and they did it for me for something like 4/6 per 1000 words Whole thing cost about 6–and I doubt if what I sent you amounted to even 1000 words–Please–if it is any trouble at all send it back and let me know if I owe you anything for the part you gave out–I have a brother in Los Angeles1–who types–I could send it to him–even if he doesn’t do it himself he has all the facilities there–and is well enough heeled to stake me to it–so please dont bother with it any more–Fact is these next few chapters are decidedly improper and I should hesitate to send them to you anyway–You say I am clever to translate it I would be very dumb after the time I spent in China and all the work I have put in to it–if I couldnt translate something It is little enough to show for it all
I don’t like being defeated by a language–but Chinese has always had me licked–So in a way this is getting a bit of my own back–Since last writing I have got in touch with a Chinese student at the U. who has promised to help out with some of the more obscure passages–when her work will let her–but that was a long time ago and I have not heard from her since–Maybe they were too obscure even for her–I see in ‘China Reconstructs’ a Red Chinese monthly which I take in that they are now trying to streamline the old characters–in their new (Red) form they are quite unrecognisable2–I couldn’t read a word of a modern (Red) paper–very discouraging–But certainly there are some strange and wonderful things happening over there–Take a look at the dam, enclosed, built by office workers–typists like you–all by hand labour–shovel and baskets–no bulldozers–and aren’t they celebrating?–3
I see that old snake in the grass the toll free bridge to Bribie that was turned down by the govt is raising its head again–The Bribieans are meeting to protest–They want the bridge–Damn them! Well sure its fine–the weather I mean–but too worried even to look at it–painting giving me headaches–So long Yrs Ian
PS. Congratulations on reaching two score–but also regrets4
1 Arthur Fairweather.
2 A resolution to simplify Chinese characters was passed by the State Council on 28 January 1956. Later that year simplified characters were introduced in schools across China to promote literacy.
3 Tan Ai-Ching, ‘Socialist Labour Builds a Dam’, China Reconstructs, August 1958. A photo caption reads: ‘Women office-workers from Peking carrying sand to the dam’. The Ming Tombs Reservoir and Dam outside Beijing, one of the projects of the Great Leap Forward, opened on 1 July 1958.
4 Marion Smith was born in 1938, so she would have turned twenty rather than forty.
118. To Annette Waters
Dear Q– I was hoping to get some sleep to night–for I believe at last I have nearly finished this batch of paintings and was counting on tomorrow–putting the last touches and packing them up–They have been a really awful struggle–Nothing has gone at all easily–but I doubt if I’ll get much sleep–A Super tarantula has taken up his position–Just over the head of my bed–which is up against the roof So he is only a foot or so away from my head–Thank heaven there are very few of these very big ones–they are as big as the human hand–and you can see two huge fangs on either side of the head–I believe they never interfere with one–but they are horrible things to have crawling around once one got mixed up in a shirt I was putting on–and ran right down my bare back–The hot weather of the last two days (it has been in the 90s) has brought them out–Last night a curious meeting–I had walked out of the cinema in disgust and at the side of the road came on a man sitting–he had also walked out So we went along together–When we were getting near my place I suggested he come and have a look at it–I have no social amenities to offer a guest–I dont know why I asked him–a moonlight night–and frustrated–and he was a sick man, recovering from a damaged spine–had to sit down every few yards. I expected he would just gawk at a few paintings and ask what they were supposed to be–Surprisingly–the first person who has been here–and seen them–he liked them a lot–in fact he was so enthusiastic that he says he will write a short story–of our meeting in the moonlight and his discovery of paintings hidden in the bush–He does a bit of writing it seems–But that was last night–Now it is the tarantula I shall have to go to bed with–Will continue this letter if I survive the tête á tête–25 Oct–Well–Survived–and perhaps the big T brought me some luck I finished the last painting today–but the big T is back in his old place again–right over my head–his legs are striped like a tiger–
P.S. You ask about abstract art–it is something I think like the Buddhist idea of suspended judgement–The mind is cleared of thought but not of awareness–Always the purpose of art is to find its way through the forest of things to a larger unity containing all things–I often had the idea in Jersey that running over rocks (of which I was inordinately fond) had some psychological or psychic significance–To balance one must run quickly from point to point–You cannot rest on one point–I read the other day that Oliver Wendell Holmes–the American philosopher1–said much the same thing–he used to run across a river when the ice was breaking–quickly jump from block to block The blocks he said were like ideas–if you stick to them too long they sink under you–
Its like that–there is a plane of comprehension where things cannot intrude in their individuality–they must be taken in stride–
1 Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr, American physician, medical reformer, novelist and poet.
119. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith– Well–I’m very thankful to hear at last–and the news is encouraging–I was feeling a bit deflated–You asked in another letter about entering ‘Gethsemane’ for the Blake prize–If you think its a good thing, that is O.K. by me1–I didn’t write before as I was expecting every day to hear from you–About ‘Allelujah’ if you have the 4 parts you have it all2–I think you must have got them arranged wrong–If you turn it face up–the design which is very simple should be a guide– [diagram of painting] it is a row of figures across the picture with a blank–space above and below–which however does not want cutting off it is a part of the design–
The division is about like this [diagram of painting assembled from four parts]
Think you must have got it thus [diagram of misassembled parts]
Am just finishing off the translation of a Chinese book here–The question arises–what to do with it–I sent part of it for an opinion to a newspaper man–he says there should be no difficulty in getting it published3–and recommends a London agent–but after the harrowing experience I had with the book I was asked to write about the raft journey–and literary agents in London–I feel a real horror of ever setting foot in that jungle again–Seems an alien far–away world–I’d much rather approach a publisher direct–but which and how. I am wondering if you have any connection with literary people and if any could advise–Dont like to think of my poor infant opus in the world all alone–As it is getting on to Xmas–may I wish you all the best and a happy New Year–and very many thanks for the good news you have sent me.
Sincerely Yrs
I Fairweather
P.S. The Allelujah is more or less square, so what you have done I think is [diagram of misassembled parts]
1 Gethsemane was included in the Blake Prize for Religious Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, in 1959.
2 Allelujah (1958).
3 The manuscript for what became The Drunken Buddha was sent to the Age journalist and writer John Hetherington in Melbourne.
120. To Ian Alister Fairweather
C of P.O. Bribie. Is. [late] Dec [1958]1
Dear Ian– Yes, quite a surprise, and a pleasant one–hearing from you–But these dark suspicions of motives–! For heavens sake–You know–my only memory of you is playing on the floor–You had a toy–and I took it away from you–for a laugh–but you didn’t react in any way I had expected–neither smiles nor tears–You exploded like a bomb–rage–You were quick on the draw alright at that early age–Time has made you more philosophical–but I still seem to hear an echo of that distant thunder–Will you believe it I had no motive at all–but to pass a weary hour and no information concerning you–good or bad–The family only provide me with vital statistics–of the briefest births–deaths–marriages–a thought concerning anyone or anything never gets into their letters You see I am not quite one of the family–I was brought up from 6 months to 10 years of age by my 3 old Scotch aunts–without in that time ever seeing my father or mother–The old aunts had come to look on me as their own child–and resented my mother coming back from India and claiming me–They had taught me to think of her as an intruder and that early impression was never effaced
We revolved as a family round my mother–Father–a simple soul–almost lost his identity–when he married into the potent Thorp clan–If I am a satellite too–my orbit has never been an inner one–so I’m not [held] to the emotional tides or fluctuation of credit on the family market–and at the age of 66 indifferent–though when younger was painfully affected by them–You speak of a rift between your mother and myself–I cant understand this–I have only a nodding acquaintance with your mother 2–hardly substantial enough to support a rift–I suppose it is no use to ask but if you know of a reason for it–let’s have it out and look at it in the light of day–a little psychiatry seems indicated Re the cataract–I have often wondered just how it got into our family–neither on the Thorp or Fairweather side was there any sign of it yet my elder sister Winnie had it–though she it seems has not passed it on–You would have to go back beyond the memory of any of us to find the culprit–the original syphilitic if that is indeed the cause–and I think that is doubtful–I have a suspicion that there is some Burmese blood in our family–but it must be from away back–did you ever see my cousin Kooshla Turner3–she could pass any day for a Burmese and I have often wondered if there is a trace of Jewish blood in the Brock Hollinsh[ea]d family–it would be interesting to know–I had no faintest suspicion that you might be coming to Australia–It seems a pity to bring these old feuds and rifts–and sad misunderstandings along with you–Its a new world–Leave the sad old world behind you–It’s hard to be really depressed when the sun shines as bright as it does here–Well I’m glad that in engineering you find something to take hold of–though I’m sorry to hear you have thrown up art–Really you know you never began it–for it only begins where copying things leaves off–It’s very sad–for you were the only other one in the family–It’s an awful lonely road–I envy you your engineering and your fraternity–with the work a day world–Art is really not a skill and certainly not a business–its a kind of belief–and its hard to believe in the midst of unbelief–I’ve suffered from that–and thought maybe to help you there–would have been nice–but well, I guess thats out–but there are still things to talk about–I liked your letter–I wish you’d write again–This will be late for Christmas but send you my avuncular benediction
Yrs Ian P.S. over
P.S. Of course you know more about Aneurin Bevan than I. I only heard him speak once but he can speak–he gave me something to take a hold of–and I read a little book of his ‘Away from Fear’ or something like that4–It leaves a residue–I take in the Red China magazine ‘China Reconstructs’–10/6 post paid per annum–propaganda–but what emerges–these people really have an idea to hang onto–an ideology if you like–but like your engineering Something to grasp–they think, at least, they are going somewhere–When you leave England you’ll begin to realize what an awful small place it really is–and nationality stretches so thin it fades away–its all one world–Some form of Communism offers the only common denominator–The Chinese have their own form and it seems to suit them I wish we could find a form of our own–I thought Bevan pointed a way–If one thinks in terms of nationality–even of class–there’s no end to it Our unfortunate class vanished with the Empire anyway–You are more lucky than I–it was still potent in my day–and kept a lot of doors locked–we are something like eggs–to hatch out we have to break our own shells–If you come here the warm sun should help–and come north–even here the winters can be quite cold
Ian Alister Fairweather (1915–2003). A nephew of Ian Fairweather, born in Khandwa, Central Provinces (present-day Madya Pradesh), second son of James Fairweather and his wife Margaret (Madge) Brock-Hollinshead, born in Jersey but the daughter of an Australian pioneering and pastoral family. An engineer and graphic designer trained in England, he migrated to New Zealand with his mother in 1959, living first in Auckland and later on Waiheke Island.
_____________
1 Annotated by Ian Alister Fairweather, ‘Written to me in Blackheath London about November 1958. It’s obviously the 2nd letter! The first seems to have got lost.’
2 Margaret Brock-Hollinshead, who married James Courtenay Thorp Fairweather in 1912.
3 Elaine Turner (b. 1889), daughter of Fairweather’s aunt Violet Turner (née Thorp) and her husband, Alweyne.
4 Aneurin Bevan, In Place of Fear (1952).
121. To Ian Alister Fairweather
Bribie. Is. 4507. Qld. [early 1959]
Dear IAF. (By the way what is the A for. I am not so blest–) I was interested to hear that you might return to painting and writing–I wish you luck!! ‘My dancing partner’–has danced me into a similar orbit–and looking back on it–I cant be sure which of us did most of the pushing–All I know–the way it has been has not been any of my choosing–If I had had my way I would have been–a curator of animals in some zoo–out of this world–As it is–I live a bit too close to the local fauna for comfort–In fact–I have learnt that charming creatures like possums–can be the greatest curse–Stealing ones sleep and one’s food–That birds–too friendly take possession of one and kill–actually kill–other birds–with whom one would like to be friendly–They become dancing partners–till I feel–I would rather sit out this dance–But the music goes round and round–if you move to another address–Yes! please let me know–Perhaps you are right–or is it your dancing partner–? We could try–perhaps to communicate–Yrs Ian
122. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith–I was glad to hear the Ennunciation had been bought for Sydney I even liked it myself and wont feel ashamed of its being there1–Technically I had some doubts about Gethsemene 2–It was painted with a black mixed with gum–and is liable in damp weather to get mouldy–It rubs (mould) off–but still its not good–I cant get a good black here–At the moment trying out a new one which should be very good but it has a shine and other peculiarities that I find hard to get used to–in fact at the moment badly bushed–not a thing done since Christmas–Last night a down pour soaked everything–(there are holes in the roof. Just can’t get around to stopping up) will take a week to dry out–Dont quite know what next to do about the Chinese book. Part I sent home to be typed has been returned un-done because it had a naughty word in it–Someone here is typing some of it for me but still less than half done–The MSS was finished near a year ago–painfully slow–might send down the few chapters done, as sample3–if it wouldn’t trouble you–See how things go–
Sincerely Yrs I Fairweather
1 Annunciation (1958) was formally acquired by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in April 1959.
2 Gethsemane (1958) had been turned down for acquisition by the Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria over concerns regarding ‘the lasting quality – in the physical sense – of Fairweather’s work’. Eric Westbrook letter to Mary Turner, 13 April 1959.
3 On 10 April 1959 Fairweather sent Treania Smith four of the twenty chapters and commented: ‘Typing the whole book will be expensive and I hesitate to risk it without approval.’
123. To Annette Waters
Dear Q–Dear me–this is not very like it–it is the new opera house in Sydney1
[Drawing of the Sydney Opera House]
All curves but they look more like wings it sits on the edge of the water like some strange bird–only caught a glimpse of it on the cinema–a really strange bird–but we are getting very modern down here are we not–and this new science building a flying saucer come to life2–Hurrah for the science fiction–At last, too, our coffee drinking is going to be brought up to date–a machine a most complicated affair–boiler–pressure gages chromium gadgets–has been imported from America
Coffee espresso–Sydney and Melbourne have several already–but we are a bit in the sticks up here–but now at last we have one here–I am rejoicing–for coffee here was is–a scandal and a pain in the neck3
Being too expensive for anyone to buy (there is a strangling monopoly on tea) the few–shops–that dispense it–dish out a horrible brew–but on account of its rarity give themselves airs of sophistication–They will not serve you–if you please–without a tie–An important American passing through here–dropped into one of our exclusive little holes in the wall–it was hot he wore a coat but very sensibly no tie–he was shown the door–So enraged he wrote the papers–I had a similar experience its why I really hate ties–Yet they get longer and longer every day–Coffee espresso is more democratic–also its real coffee–The machine pumps steam under pressure through the coffee grounds–and extracts the last iota of coffee–and presto a cup of the real maccoy–Have you got them in London yet
Yrs Ian
1 The Danish architect Jørn Utzon had been announced as the winner of the international design competition for the Sydney Opera House in January 1957.
2 The Australian Academy of Science building in Canberra, designed by the Melbourne architect Roy Grounds, was officially opened in May 1959.
3 The Milano espresso bar, operated by Dean Merlo, opened in Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall in 1958.
124. To Marion Smith
Bribie June 8 [postmarked 1959]
Dear Marion
I’m blessing you. I think you must have been reading my mind–I have been needing a wooley badly for long–but couldn’t get one–and this is a lovely wooley–Really bless you–I’m wearing it and warm for once–I hate these long cold nights–for it is only at night I can believe in things–but when its cold I can only think how cold it is–
Well, thats wonderful news–Your going to England–I wonder if it will be London How much I would like to show you around some of the old haunts–The galleries–the little cafés in Soho–Dear old Chelsea where Turner used to paint his sunsets–and the long haired Bohemians in the Cafe Royale.1 Dirty old London–But at least you will be there when it is warm–Your letter I fear finds me in the depths–I have just sent off some paintings that I’m ashamed of–and the future is black. Hey ho–well if anything could raise the temperature–your wooley will help–I’ll be blessing you and wishing you a nice trip–and quick return–Yrs Ian
P.S. You ask about the price of the Belle Hollandaise–she was once a picture but now she has become a flying saucer–so what have you?2
1 Established in Regent Street in London in 1865, the Café Royale became famous in the early twentieth century as a meeting place of bohemians and intellectuals.
2 Picasso’s La Belle Hollandaise (1905) had been purchased by the Queensland Art Gallery in 1959.
125. To Annette Waters
Dear Q– Encounter has turned up1–very delighted was in much need of something like this–Seems like dear old liberalism–under which we all grew up–is still not quite dead–still seems to sprout here and there–about Bloomsbury–and the British Museum–up along Gower St–by the Slade School and round by the Euston Rd and down Southhampton Row–Inside that area–About all that is left of it I guess–Fallen on evil days–The other night at movies–a Western–but there was an Englishman in it–what was he doing there? He was there to get slapped by a greasy Mexican for using the word decency–I dont like that word said the greaser–Thats how it is these days–Liberalism was proud of its reasonableness and decency–the last illusion of the haute bourgeoisie–There seems nothing more hated now–outside of Bloomsbury–Ah well–we’ve lived into a different sort of world–a new coinage now–the Geiger counter–Well its been a great day–after all the rain some sun at last and Bribie looking its splendid best–Went out to look at Mei lin and nail on a few more rafters–now there is a young moon in a clear sky with banks of gold cloud in layers like a tipsey cake–no wind at all–The cat came for his supper like a grey ghost as usual–always waits hidden somewhere till he hears me take the lid off the pot–and then materialises–with just his head showing round the door never will come in–never waits afterwards, and the wallaby comes hop hopping out of the woods for his slice of bread–and then there are the birds–but they are best at breakfast (when I have it) they sing then–A new kind of sausage showed up yesterday at our delicatessen called a Vege loaf–its terrible–but has given me ideas–it has a lot of veg in it–that is getting somewhere–Think I told you, in the war American woman (with Govt. assistance) brought out a meal mixture of soya beans etc–The soya can replace meat–but tastes like blotting paper but her invention lapsed–anti meat trade etc–You say E doing gardening–why not suggest to her a little food research–a mincing machine (electric) mixtures–soya beans–brewers yeast–nuts–a sausage maybe–My wallaby is a gentleman compared to this carnivorous cat
I dont like not liking myself–like the cat
Blessings Yrs Ian
P.S–Was thinking of sending you a sub for the Encounter but on reading it more closely–not so hot–However would like one more copy, to give it a try
P P S over [text missing]
1 Anglo-American literary magazine founded in London in 1953 by the poet Stephen Spender and the American journalist Irving Kristol, and originally associated with the anti-Stalinist Left. It later received covert funding from the Central Intelligence Agency.
126. To Annette Waters
Dear Q. At a loose end tonight–not a thing in the place to read–so hope you wont mind if I write–Afraid my letters must be very boring–but sometimes a guy must talk–Having a sort of premature Spring here a month ahead of time–but not trusting it–This is the time we usually get the bitter westerlies blowing from the frozen interior–expect them any moment–but enjoying the gorgeous warm weather–Spent the afternoon fixing up Mei lin–putting on rafters–found that two owls had taken up their abode in a tree which leans over it–Climbing up I almost bumped into them–guess they were asleep–Curious looking things–not quite owls–half night–jar–they call them Mopoke here–from the noise they make Have some hope now that Mei lin will be finished–
That wretched bridge for the moment has come to a halt–The govt–asked for tenders to build it–but none were forthcoming–Then a company was formed with I believe American backing The Bribie Development Co–They offered to build the bridge free in return for 20,000 acres to be developed as a tourist resort–but it leaked out that the real reason was the Zircon sands of which Bribie seems to be largely composed–they wanted to mine it–Zircon it seems, is almost as valuable as gold these days–When the Govt. realised what they would be giving away–they turned down the offer–and now everything is back where it started–Except for the Chevron Hotel people who bought 400 acres–went over it with bull-dozers Knocking down all the grand old trees, and coming unpleasantly near to Mei lin–and now for some reason seem to have also come to a halt–So there is a breathing space–In your last letter you spoke as though you intended staying in Jersey–I suppose when E goes to S[outh] A[frica] with Benjy you will stay in Loopy–Absurd waste of money traipsing back & forth–Why dont the sisters build an annex to E’s house to make room to live there1–be something to show for the money anyway–This joyriding doesn’t make sense–There is the land there–and these pre fab jobs can be quite comfortable to live in–In Australia here most of the houses are prefab–and run up in a month or two there is quite a new type of architecture developing here–long and low with flat roofs–and no very definite walls–rather on the Japanese principle of sliding screens when you are under the roof–doesn’t mean you are inside the house–and the walls are mostly glass–from roof to floor–so always there is a large amount of outside inside–It makes a very pleasant way of living–If only I could build Mei lin like that–one could sit at breakfast and watch the roos and emus and look at the big trees and listen to the Mopokes–Very interested in a house building here of stucco–They make a framework of wood then over it stretch wire netting–they put that waterproof paper inside the netting and then plaster over the netting and it is done–seems simple–and much used in America so must be effective–
In Jersey where instead of emus you would have the neighbours looking in at the window Could use the Chinese principle of building round a patio–almost got to the end of that Chinese book–Chi-tien has died from eating cold salted leeks–and they are making funeral orations–very bored with it–Have to go back now and do the beginning–Getting on slowly.
Bye now Yrs Ian
1 Ethel lived at Travers Farm, Noirmont, Jersey.
127. To Helga Macnamara
Bribie Oct 4 [postmarked 1959]
Dear Pippa–
Will be sending off with this–some more–Books and MSS–I have translated some of the book that Patricia Rich1 sent me–Three short stories2–I think they have a lot more chance of finding a publisher than the long one ‘Joy’ I sent you–Incidentally the title ‘Joy’ will have to be changed–I am sending you the original–a small book 4 little vols in case–You will see the title is 6 characters which read from top to bottom–‘Picture, illustration, all, Great, Joy–Joy’3–I wrote to a Chinaman in Peking for translation but he said without knowing the book he could not oblige–So even the Chinese–The language being not written in words but idea graphs–So how you translate them into words is your personal problem–That is the uniqueness of the Chinese idea–You neednt know the Chinese language to read it–The nearest thing yet to a universal language–or writing rather–However the Chinese with their love of complications have made it almost unreadable even to themselves–‘To return to Joy’ I think it boils down to ‘The Way of Pleasure.’
I sent the 3 short stories into B[risbane] to be typed they wanted £6-6 it is just one little exercise book (in envelope)–Painting going so bad lately–no money–but perhaps by the time the book reaches you I will raise £2–will see–With it is a largish Chinese book (analysis of Chinese problems 1956) interesting but not worth while translating though easy to read being modern–have made two exercise books Vocabulary–be useful to some student–Enclosing with these to escape the ants–Ptolemys ‘Tetra biblos’4–It is the bible of all astrologers if you want to make a horoscope–the Tet is the ultimate authority–We are in the middle of a long drought here and there have been some spectacular bushfires–Fortunately survived but doubt that there is much left of the island–All the under brush burnt out, one can walk anywhere–The big trees all lose their leaves–the big gums recover–but the cypress etc is killed–always sad–My house now surroundedby skeletons–Will be anxious to hear if you get the package You might find some of the short stories interesting to read–and am much obliged to Tricia for sending them–but they are real old classical Chinese and very tough going–Write soon rather despondent–painting walked out on me–maybe just lost its leaves like the trees–makes a dreary world while it lasts–(6 months) ‘The long winter of my discontent’5–A bit desperate
So long Yrs Ian
1 The granddaughter of Fairweather’s eldest sister Winifred, who was living in Malaya. She is later referred to as Tricia.
2 Based on typescripts now in the family collection, Fairweather translated from a famous collection of short stories by the late Ming Dynasty writer and scholar Feng Menglong. Written in vernacular Chinese, they were first published published in 1620 as Illustrious Words to Instruct the World 警世通言.
3 繪圖皆大歡喜, the title on the cover of the 1894 edition of Huitu Ji Dian jiahua 繪圖濟顚佳話, translated by Fairweather, initially called ‘Illustrated All Great Joys’ or ‘Joy’, published as The Drunken Buddha.
4 The Tetrabiblios or Apotelesmatika of the Greco-Roman writer Claudius Ptolemy.
5 A reference to the opening line of Shakespeare’s Richard III.
128. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion– Well it is too bad about missing the trip–You ll catch up with it next year–But I shouldn’t grieve too much–I never got to like the English country–I was brought up in Jersey which is Norman French–There is still a country life there on the land–Old stone gateways to farmyards with carved coats of arms on them–and a grand old castle on top of a rock looking down on the sea1–People still live on the land there and like it–(or did before I left now I hear it’s getting like the Gold Coast) but in England all the life has gone into the towns–the country looks sucked dry to me and sooty–the juggernaut of industry has rolled over it and spread its tar macadam–Hey ho When I think of the Sogne Fjord in Norway2–or Salzburg–those people have never murdered their country–for the sake of a few pesetas
But I mustn’t think too much about country–Since finishing the thatch–I am very unsettled–it was good to be out in the air–now I have to sit in and let the mossies eat me–I am thinking all the time of up north where I built my first house–before the war–when I came back it was gone–and I’ve been sort of disconsolate ever since–It was the rainforest there that fascinated me–But enough–these faraway places–too much glamour–By the way what kind of dream was it I got mixed up in–not a bad one I hope–This book a mistake I made–Carson Maculler can write all right–I liked her ‘Member of the Wedding’3–but this is not so hot–Still too good to throw away and no one here to pass it to–Maybe you could give it a try–but hold your nose–Trying to get Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’ if get it will send–He’s a Beatnik and so am I4– So long
Yrs Yan
1 Elizabeth Castle, built on rocks in St Aubin Bay, St Helier, dates back to the late sixteenth century.
2 Norway’s largest fjord and the third largest in the world.
3 Carson McCullers, The Member of the Wedding (1946).
4 Jack Kerouac, On the Road (1957), the Beat Generation classic.
129. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith Am sending today one package of paintings–(20) They are mostly done on newspaper–(as I ran out of other paper) so will be a bit flimsy till stuck on something–(suggest chipboard)1 They are also (mostly) without titles–for they really refer (mostly) to nothing in particular–sort of soliloquies–I suppose will have to come under the heading of abstracts–Signed in pencil at bottom to indicate what side is up–Ah well, let’s hope sunny side–Shall be very anxious to hear if you get them all right–
Sincerely Yrs
I Fairweather
1 ‘Ian Fairweather’, Macquarie Galleries, 6–18 July 1960. The exhibition included eleven works titled Paintings I–XI and four titled Paintings on Paper I–IV.
130. To Annette Waters
Dear Q. Still having designs on the Côtil as enclosed1–Have just read a book Dharma Bums which has given me a tremendous boost–The Bums study Chinese–Art etc–and Zen Buddhism2–My Chinese translation is Zen–so am trying a lot of new directions with more hope–The Bums otherwise known as Beatniks are quite numerous–all very young of course–and all Americans–but it is a movement that will spread I think–Do you remember Lefevre and me playing Red Indians–it all came from a book that young Vernon gave me ‘Two Little Savages’3–what fun we had–and of course that too came from America But Baden Powell also alas! read it and turned it into the Boy Scout movement–Let us pray that no Baden Powell will catch the Bums and put them in uniform–Dont think you would like the book but just to get an idea of what a Bum is you might get it from the library–There is another and I believe better by Jack Kerouac–‘On the Road’ but have not read it yet–well Hey ho Sing Hey ho.
Yrs Ian–
P S Do you remember one day you were teaching me to write letters–and Aunt Jane came and said now write a word–it will be the first word you write–what will it be–? and I wrote Bum–Poor Aunt Jane, she was disappointed–
[Second page: two drawings for a house set into a hillside showing front, east and west elevations, the top drawing in blue ink marked ‘verandah’, ‘living room’, ‘dining room alcove’, ‘bedroom’, ‘studio window’, ‘bedroom’, ‘garage’, ‘kitchen, bath etc’]
1 The letter is inscribed on the reverse: ‘Ian’s plan for a house to be built on the Cotil in Jersey (near) Forest Hill’, the former Fairweather family home. A côtil is a small slope or hillside.
2 Kerouac, The Dharma Bums (1958).
3 Ernest Thompson Seton, Two Little Savages (1903); but it was Seton’s The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians (1906) that was an influence on the thinking of British military officer and writer Robert Baden-Powell, who founded the worldwide Scout movement.
131. To Ethel Stewart
Bribie. Good Friday– [15 April 1960]
Dear E–Many thanks for the Easter Egg and the cuttings–Interesting–But of course never met Blakeway–he was not born when I left England–So many of these young people hitchhiking around the world these days–Girls too–Dont know how they find jobs–I never could–Not sociable enough I guess–I am more like a young Russian we have here–our local Tarzan1–makes a dugout canoe–paddles up the coast–living off the land and the sea–headed for New Guinea and the sky–but gets brought back naked to Papa by the police–And then if one tries to write these things down–something like the cutting is all–a bewildering catalogue–Beads without a string dont make a necklace–one has to be a schizo to be a writer–achieve ahymsa 2 or something–Still got a long way to go–I am wondering if Durrell the Jersey Zoo man is a relation of Laurence Durrell the novelist, who writes about Alexandria–(books I much want to read) He and Nobokov3–I will try and get the books you mention but not much chance–they only supply reference books–or old classics–Was most interested to hear you had met Le Hunt We were nine in a room and a parrot4–I think the parrot belonged to Jackie (Le Hunt)–at least its cage used to hang near his bed and table–whenever he picked up a teacup the parrot would make loud sucking noises–they were great friends–If you meet him again ask him what became of it–Also if he has kept track of any of the other 9–I came across a mention of Brockus Burroughs–(one of our 9) He was studying Russian along with Jackie–and must have become pretty good at it–He was in Moscow to meet Allenby when he and Churchill visited Stalin–presumably as interpreter–Ask him too what became of ‘Milli’ (Milleradovitch) he was a Russian aristocrat–our neighbour in those days and Oh yes the redoubtable Major Nutt–be interesting to know what has happened to them all–We used to talk of forming a club after the war–I see these Australians have an Escapers Club–and have an annual dinner here in B[risbane]–Half a mind to invite myself in one day–Will try out the dope–but ask your chemist what the other treatment is–maybe mine is a weeper–No ointment yet effective–
Ethel Rosalie Stewart (1880–1972). A sister of Ian Fairweather, born in Brechin, Scotland. In 1909 she married George Stewart. They later lived at Travis Farm, Noirmont, St Brelade, on Jersey.
Happy Easter– Yrs Ian–
1 Russian-born Michael Fomenko was the son of the Georgian princess Elizabeth Machabelli and Daniel Fomenko, her husband who later became a master at Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore). A promising athlete in his youth, Michael Fomenko later lived a wandering life in northern Australia, where he became known as the ‘Tarzan’ of the deep north. In 1959 he had sailed from Cooktown to Merauke in former Dutch New Guinea in a dugout canoe, and was rescued and later repatriated to his parents. In March 1960 he was located by police in Rockhampton. See ‘“Tarzan” Again on Drift’, Courier-Mail, 16 March 1960.
2 Ahim· sā, Sanskrit for ‘non-injury’. In the Indian religions of Jainism, Hinduism and Buddhism it is the ethical principle of not causing harm to other living things. In the early twentieth century Gandhi extended the doctrine into the political sphere as satyagraha, non-violent resistance to British imperialism.
3 Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet (1957–60), brother of the naturalist Gerald Durrell; Vladimir Nabokov, Russian-born novelist best known for Lolita (1955).
4 Fairweather recalls his POW comrades of World War I.
132. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith–Thanks a lot for the cheque–and I was sorry to hear about your Mother–it is sad we all grow old–but it seems we are longer lived now–I remember the old Scotch aunts who brought me up were about my age now when they died–but they were already very aged and frail–I dont feel frail I’m glad to say–but touching wood–I packed up and sent off yesterday 12 medium size paintings and 4 small–Hope they arrive safe and please let me know–I have painted a border round most of them as a guide to a framer or mounter–(I wish they hadn’t got to be framed–which I think all wrong–implies depth–) I noticed one which had been in shadow had an unfortunate parti-coloured edge when in the light–I hope the framer will have the sense to leave that out–(it is the one in white lines on black) and there is one with a dark band top and bottom which should be retained as part of the picture–I regret they have no names nothing to identify them or serve as an epitaph
When I strip my walls–nothing remains–I tried this time to raise a camera–would badly like to have something to remember them by–also an asset to study–How about having a few of them photoed–if not too expensive–must see if I cant raise a Brownie–would like to send a picture of my thatch–of which I am proud–Will be interested to hear how the paints fare in New Z reaction in the press1–See there is a new art critic on the Sydney Sun–So will not expect anymore schmalz from that direction2–
Will be anxious to hear your reaction to these last–Pity you didn’t wade our Pumistone Passage–maybe when we have a bridge3–A.V.S. Yrs–
Ian Fairweather
1 ‘Contemporary Australian Art’, Auckland City Gallery, 1960, included Buffalo Ride (1959).
2 Laurie Thomas was theatre and art critic for the Sydney Sun, 1957–61.
3 Pumicestone Passage, the narrow waterway between Bribie Island and mainland Queensland across which the Bribie Island Bridge would be built.
133. To Helga Macnamara
Bribie. 27 May– [postmarked 1960]
Dear Pippa. A happy day–your letter to say the MSS has arrived–a great relief–Also thank you for sending ‘Buddhism’ I think perhaps the Buddhist Society1 would be the best place to first send the MSS–to know if they think it worth publishing and if so suggest a publisher–The 20th chapter by the way is also with you but as there was not room after 19–in the exercise book–it is stuffed into one of the others, at the end–Also much relieved to learn they like the last batch of paintings sent down to Sydney–I thought I would try them out on the public here–hung them up over weekend in our cinema–Stony silence–depressed
I hear a new book Modern Australian Painting & Sculpture–Kym Bonython–has just been published, in which I am included2–Too expensive to buy 5/5 will try get it from library–Dont expect I shall get much of a break as the lad who writes the introduction is the one who with Ella Griffith was arranging a show–and I had to call it off–telling Ella (on account of his connection with the Jewess). I didn’t trust the young man–She handed my letter over to him–He is now the art critic on the Sydney Herald–So no more schmalz from that quarter–The Review refers to me as an influence on the younger generation here–Well, well–it was nice to feel a pioneer–but now its a tidal wave Even the academy you say–gone abstract? Library sent me today–Dictionary of Abstract painting–Michel Seuphor3–might interest you–many illustrations–Yes now it is a deluge–Have been rather pipped by the Americans claiming to be the pioneers of abstract P. but according to the dictionary (French) they are only a drop in the ocean–and our old Turner is the grandfather of them all–Hey ho–how I remember the day when I kissed his Sea Monster in the Tate He was about as unfashionable then as anti-semitism today4–Also another book which promises a pleasant weekend–Religion and the Rebel–Colin Wilson, speaks Hyde Park corner5–member of the Bridge sleeping bag in park–a Beatnik–Have not seen the Studio Mag6–30 years–if still exists–could you send copy–Maybe we are catching up with the world–Regards and remember me to Dottie Q for Auld lang syne–Yrs Ian.
1 The Buddhist Society was founded in 1924 and built on the pioneering work of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland, established in 1907.
2 Modern Australian Painting and Sculpture: A Survey of Australian Art from 1950 to 1960 (1960) by Kym Bonython included two works by Fairweather, Roi Soleil (1956–57) and Pool (1959). The introduction is by Laurie Thomas.
3 Michel Seuphor, A Dictionary of Abstract Painting: With a History of Abstract Painting (1957).
4 Turner’s Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c. 1845) was acquired by the Tate Gallery as part of the Turner Bequest (1856).
5 Colin Wilson, English writer who made his name with The Outsider (1956), followed by Religion and the Rebel (1957). He was briefly a member of the libertarian group the Bridge Circle.
6 The Studio: An Illustrated Magazine of Fine and Applied Art, published in London 1893–1964.
134. To Annette Waters
Dear Q A visit today from a lady–Down for a holiday on the coast from inland–came to see my famous thatched hut–and the paintings–Wasn’t very interested in the paintings but the Chinese hooked her–Had me read out a poem I had just translated–Made me promise to send her a copy of it–signed1–Maybe you will like it too–so herewith–The story is about Hangchow They cross the lake and come to the busy waterfront it is Spring
Dust of men and wheels turning
Rumble of horse and cart
Hidden till the wind blows dust apart
The sun is brighter
An oriole in the clouded willows sings
Pollen dusting from the spreading boughs
A lute string is plucked–
In a house there is dancing
And while they sing
The Spring to Summer grows
Smell of traffic passing
Jeweled rein in haste
The white faced noble’s silver stirrup rings
The red faced peasant marvels at his rich and many things
Good news about Rosemary–Congratulations–
Yrs Ian
1 Lila Herron, who lived at Homebush, via Clifton on the Darling Downs. Fairweather had written to her and sent a copy of the poem (see letter 246).
135. To Annette Waters
Dear Q Your letter and the Studio turned up today–Thats swell–I was feeling very bored with life–For 6 months I’ve been stuck in the mud–not a step forward in painting and getting a nightmare–Well I’m glad to hear you have been to the Tate–You must go and browse around the Victoria & Albert one day–I spent many happy hours there–I loved the old place–You remember when I was staying with the Scotts in Surbiton I came up every day to an army crammer in the Earls Court Rd but never, or very seldom went there–instead I walked along to the Victoria & A and spent all the day there–went into the Library and sat looking at Michaelangelo drawings–Mighty casual one was at that age–I just felt I was wasting my time at the army crammers–and I wasn’t so far wrong–come to think of it–
Good news about Rosemary–getting through her exams–Hope her job will prove interesting1 Only progress I am making is in Chinese Just finished 8 short stories–sent them off to be typed–So broke again–Thanks for sending the Studio–not too bad–but not worth a sub–at the moment–May get around to it later–Would like to have a look at Times Literary Supplement–If you send a copy I bless you–First warm night of the year–wonderful for a week or two till the mosquitoes start–Believe have cured (touch wood) the wart on my nose with Zam Bak making an attack on the ear but everything just seems to make it spread2–Strange thing was the Raft Journey cured it–no sign of it in England–but started again as soon as I returned here–believe an allergy to dryness
Foot recovered–went at last to ambulance to probe it–sure enough big splinter in it–so now all serene–Wonder if you will find my little room in the V & A–with hand painted wall paper–Top floor West side–You put your head in the window–You are in fairyland–Tried to get E[thel] up there but only got to first floor up–she was so tired had to go off and get a drink–Cold back again wrapped in poncho–but Summer not far off
Yrs Ian
PS Not top floor–that is all china
2nd floor up–
1 Rosemary was in the army working as a cipher officer.
2 An ointment for skin irritations and abrasions.
136. To Annette Waters
Dear Q Bribie has been in the news–We have had some spectacular bushfires–Red skys at night and choking smoke fogs–
Last night I had taken a last look round–there seemed no fire near enough to worry about and I went to bed–but was woken by a roaring–at first I thought an air plane flying low–but it went on too long so got up–the fire was almost on my doorstep–The long drought has dried up all the swamps–and it had got into one near me–a most awe-inspiring sight–the trees crowded together make a firey furnace–reminded me of Louvain in World War I–Fortunately the road stopped it–The paper sent an airplane over to photograph the burning island–came right over here–but all papers next day bought up so couldn’t get a photo–However today–one of our only policemen pickup who came and killed the poor old Roo torn by dogs–he is also game warden–fire warden–and undertaker– Yrs Ian
P.S Managed to get air photo after all–so herewith1–
1 ‘Blaze…Over Bribie. Fire Threatens Island Town’ and ‘Fire Rings Township’, Courier-Mail, 29 September 1960.
137. To Helga Macnamara
Dear Pippa this is good news–They are safe now from the white ants–If they dont get into your dust bin–all is well–The remainder of the short stories should reach you soon1–When typed I want you to send me one copy and keep one copy yourself–I can revise the one you send and perhaps try them out here in Australia–‘The Way of Pleasure’ had little chance here–but these short stories are quite readable–Also I have learnt that there is a Govt. fund here for getting authors work published Dont know much about it as yet, but hopeful–Also I hear there is a UNESCO fund for translations–of important works–The short stories could not claim any importance–but still something to find out about–One bad bit of news–I have never seen any translation of Chinese folk tales before–only classics like Confucius and the poets–so thought I was a pioneer in that field–but I see Arthur Waley of the B.M. has now turned in that direction and published a collection of short folk tales. 2 So I wont be the first, but perhaps it shows the wind is coming round in that direction The ‘Classics’ are getting a bit threadbare–I am starting in on the other book Tricia sent me from Malaya–and it is proving almost too easy–I’m afraid I will get it finished too soon–and then be hung up–So want to put out a feeler for another book–Tricia’s friend in Borneo evidently knows her stuff–I do hope she has not lost touch with her–but she returned the money I sent–perhaps a polite way of saying, no more–and I want more–much more and will gladly impoverish myself to get it–its my opium–I’m really afraid of running out–and being left alone with my bloody ego–So would you please ask her–only I must insist on paying–Failing that could she put me in touch with a university in Hong Kong or Malaya–I wrote the School of Oriental Studies London but only get as far as the Secretary which isn’t much–good–Old Sir Donald Ross whom I did know being dead3–Well I’m coming on odd cross references and clues In ‘The way of Pleasure’ there was an ‘iron ox’–he turns up again in these short stories and I’ve met him a third time in an article on Zen who is this Iron Ox–Then there is Shang-E as beautiful as Shang-E they say The lady in the moon who stole the elixir of life and turned into a frog4–What is this tale–? and Kūan non is she Kūan Yin [margin note with arrow] (no telling from the romanised sound)–and what has she to do with a bell–because in the story a bell falls off her–all this very intriguing–I wish you would fascinate a Sinologue and make him elucidate–Been reading Koestler–Lotus is Robot–de-bunking Orientalism–and The Stink of Zen–(which doesn’t mean what you would suppose–nothing in Zen ever does) and it alone escapes his debunking5–but poor old Suzuki is flattened6–Begins to look as though our last hope of enlightenment will come from Africa–Nigeria perhaps–the Fulani–honey coloured and of ravishing beauty7–A book I hear worth reading about some of it–Things Fall Apart by a young African Chin a Achebe8–Uli Beier and Susanne Wenger who live and paint and write there consider it the hope of the world9–Alas! that one should always be cast as a Rip Van Winkle and miss the bus–Ah well–if it is not too late–it has taken me 30 odd years to learn a little Chinese–and 40 odd to even get a glimmer of painting–but at the moment of writing thank God there is a glimmer–So hey ho Sing hey ho–and hoopla the Holly–
Happy Christmas–Yrs Ian
P.S. If she T is willing, let me know and I will write her
1 Fairweather had sent the final three short stories on 25 November 1960.
2 Waley, Ballads and Stories from Tun-huang: An Anthology (1960).
3 (Edward) Denison Ross, British scholar of Arabic and Persian, inaugural director of the School of Oriental Studies, University of London.
4 Chang’e, Goddess of the moon.
5 Koestler’s The Lotus and the Robot (1960) and A Stink of Zen (1960).
6 Daisetsu Teitaro Suzuki, Japanese author of books and essays on Buddhism that were instrumental in spreading an interest in Zen (Chan) and Shin or True Pure Land forms of Eastern philosophy to the West.
7 The Fula people (or Fulani or Fulbe), a migratory ethnic group spread over many countries but predominantly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa and Sudanese North Africa.
8 Chinua Achebe, Nigerian novelist, poet, academic and critic best known for his first novel, Things FallApart (1958).
9 Ulli Beier, German-born Jewish scholar who played a pioneering role in developing literature, drama and poetry in Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Germany. Susanne Wenger, Austrian artist who worked with her husband, Beier, in Nigeria in the 1950s.
138 To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith
Not much news I fear
Yes Laurie Thomas paid me a visit and we had a little picnic on the beach–He brought Olsen and his wife (i e Olsen’s wife) with him1–also a Brisbane girl–but I did not catch her name2–Took some photos of the old hut and me posing before it–Wish they had taken themselves–these solitary photos are boring–
Well we survived the ecclypse without even seeing it as it was pouring with rain–Too bad after such great expectations However there is still a chance they say that the poles may dip and we may find ourselves in the Arctic–Something to look forward to–About painting prefer not to make prognostications–but have hopes–for Easter–Thanks for writing and the cheque–Sincerely Yrs–Ian Fairweather
1 John Olsen (b. 1928), Australian painter whose sensitive account of his 1961 visit to Fairweather with his wife, Valerie, is recorded in Drawn from Life (1997).
2 Bronwyn Yeates (née Tricks, 1923–2000), Melbourne-born painter who married Laurie Thomas as his second wife in 1966.
139. To Laurence Thomas
Dear Thomas– Many thanks for the Penguins I can see I am going to enjoy them–Too bad about the photos–Curiously by the same post an old photo album I had left by the way has caught up with me–goes back 55 years–a strange experience–as it has been lost since 1928–and rather sad to see it again–makes me not want to think about the past1–Reminds me too much of another photo album I came across in Canada–I had got a job looking after a farm on an island–my predecessor had been a parson defrocked–he had died of cancer–it was very lonely there–He had gone to the hospital in Victoria–but as he was going to die they wouldn’t keep him there–and his landlady–for the same reason wanted to be rid of him–She took his bed away and he died on the floor–In the album was all his life at school and Cambridge–and then in Egypt–where I suppose disaster fell upon him for the photos come to an end All through a long Winter I was alone on the island with this album and his few belongings He had no relatives–Gave me the creeps–My own album contains another tragedy a very great friend at the Slade–contracted syphilis which got to his brain–He was put away in an asylum–his last days in our old barn near Hertford–full of his paintings–All too sad to bear thinking about. 2 No I’m afraid at the moment biographical details are the last thing I want to be thinking about–
Olsen mentioned a shop in Sydney that sells powder colours with a plastic dope to mix with them–comes cheaper–Forgot to ask him to write the address–If you should hear of it please let me know–Thank Miss Yeates for the photos and my regrets they did not turn out. And now most grateful for the Penguins– Yrs–Ian Fairweather
Laurence Nicholas Barrett (Laurie) Thomas (1915–74). Melbourne-born gallery director and critic who championed Fairweather’s work over many years. As Director of the Queensland Art Gallery (1961–67), he recommended the purchase of Epiphany (1961–62), one of Fairweather’s greatest paintings. In 1964 he commissioned the Ian Fairweather retrospective exhibition, which opened first in Brisbane before travelling to each of the Australian state galleries, 1965–66. In 1964 he presented a television program on Fairweather’s life and work, part of a series titled Six Modern Australian Painters screened on ABC Television.
_____________
1 Sent by his brother Neville Fairweather, who lived in Canada.
2 Efforts to identify this friend were unsuccessful.
140. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion–Nice to hear from you again–Bad luck about the fever–but you seem to have done England pretty thoroughly–so perhaps it did not trouble you there–I always feel better there or at least in a damp climate–even though I hate the cold–But that is mostly money–With someone to stoke the fire and do the washing, its a different story–one can be mighty comfortable in London all right–with enough cash–Without it–it is the ugliest damn place on earth–I am still here as you see but every winter I’m tempted to go north–but getting old–70 this year–The thought of building another humpy!–would be bad–and moving around upsets painting and no time to lose–Do Chinese–a page a day one can count up–some one thing done a step forward–but painting–a will o the wisp–never know if coming or going–Finished the last batch–at last but what a struggle–If anything gets finished at all it is a miracle–it requires an act of faith–more than the will–
You must have been in London about the time of the Picasso Exhibition–Must hand it to P–he has the will1–Dont know why you say no music in London–no barrel organs now of course–and no jukeboxes–I hope–but BBC on tap everywhere–Hey ho remember seeing Melba at the Albert Hall2–You should have done a gallery at the Albert on Sunday–only 1/- it used to be–quite an experience–or a Wigmore prom with Henry Woods tearing his hair3–Alas–Henry has gone–and I see in the paper today Beacham has gone too4–But cant believe music has gone–Yes I suppose the Indians are more friendly–everyone is more friendly than the English–and every one more fickle–Soon perhaps we can drop the labels–English French German etc–we will all be Europeans including the Russians–but when it comes to colour–when I think that golden hair should perish from the earth–no–no and no
So long Yrs Ian
1 The Tate Gallery, 6 July – 18 September 1960.
2 Nellie Melba, internationally famous Australian operatic soprano.
3 In 1895 the English conductor Henry Wood launched London’s annual series of promenade concerts at Queens Hall, where they remained a fixture until it was bombed in 1941.
4 Thomas Beecham, English conductor and impresario, a major influence on musical life in Britain over much of the twentieth century.
141. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion–We are a strange people, vide the enclosed cutting–This is the fourth Spring that the Marchers for 50 miles in the rain have come to rally in Trafalgar Sq–and listen–in the rain to an address by Bertrand Russell 881–What moves these people?–When I first heard of them I thought crackpots–But the pilgrimage grows bigger every year–and BR is a big gun intellectual–Who knows–Perhaps these are the early Christians of a new idea coming into the world–Russia has put the first man in Space 2–Perhaps we will go down in history as the first to show the way to international peace These are happy people–they have a cause–something that goes beyond the here and the now That is the way to be happy–to have a cause. People used to find it in religion–now more find it in Communism–For 2000 years the Chinese have found it in Confucius and filial piety3–Each family lived within walls–what went on outside didn’t matter much–but the old walls are all falling down–the old world is getting too small–we all are trying to hitch our wagons to a star–I so envy those who have found their star–and got in a big waggon with a whole lot of friends–all going to heaven together–Hey ho–my first landlady in London was an old trouper–an actress–never a success–a little rabbit hutch of a house in a slum street–but inside was art and the door open to all artists–I wish I could have stayed there always–but somehow always went looking for my star in the most lonely places–I went for a hike in Norway one Summer and when I left the Slade went to live there–They live in the valleys–but in Summer go up on the veld with their cows and live in little log huts cheese making–In Winter the huts (sacters?) are empty–They let me have one of those for nothing–and I lived a winter up there4–in the snow and the storms–all the beauty of this world–I thought it ought to be enough–Anyway it was the road I was fated to take–but I dont recommend it–I envy these Aldermaston marchers–that is a much happier road–Glad to hear you are taking up Italian and if you are doing it for its own sake with no practical end in view–that is all to the good–that it seems to me is civilisation–I take in this Times Lit Sup–and notice all these ads for Librarians–every week–The Sup makes good reading–If you like I could pass it on to you–it only goes to light fires here but have always thought a library job would be interesting–and should not be too hard to qualify for–
Bye now Yrs Ian
1 Fairweather had intended to enclose a cutting from Time magazine with images of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s Aldermaston anti-nuclear rally in Trafalgar Square, London, on 3 April 1961, but sent it subsequently. Bertrand Russell, British philosopher and mathematician, was a leading anti-war campaigner.
2 Yuri Gagarin, the first human to journey into outer space.
3 The philosophy of Confucius emphasised self-cultivation, personal and governmental morality, the correctness of social relationships, justice, and sincerity.
4 Fairweather had made a walking tour through Norway in 1922. In 1924–25, after six months in Germany, he went again to Norway and spent the winter painting in Kvam.
142. To Annette Waters
Bribie–21 April [postmarked 1961]
Dear Q– Blessings–the parcel arrived and as today was the first touch of Winter with grey skys I was able to wear the pullover and feel better dressed than I have ever been in Bribie before–The colour is the same as the trees I live amongst so most suitable–I shall not alarm my birds–and so comfortable–I feel rich–but at your expense alas!–However painting is really looking up. I have hopes I may be able to repay you1–I shall be all right now for this Winter–and a long time to come–It was a happy thought enclosing the Serk [Sark] story2–what memories it brings back–For the last two days I have, almost literally, been living in Serk again3–a strange feeling–the past more real than the present–The wars of Séchant and the drunken Seigneur4–what fun they were–She writes very well–her book would be worth while getting–I will return the clippings in another envelope–She must have been running around when we were there but I dont think I ever saw her–The old lady artist she speaks of must have been the one I think who painted Mother (oh no I remember now, that was Miss Lomax5–) never heard of the other Ah well! After living in so romantic a place–as remote from the world as Thibet how can one be other than gaga
My old hut here is a worthy descendant of those far off faery days–it is about as far out of the world as it can get–So I still feel a strong link with that time–Glad to hear the leg is all right again–You mentioned Elaine (Brotherton) the other day–is she still living with you6–?–I see these Aldermaston Marchers have been at it again–this is the fourth spring–it is becoming a sort of pilgrimage–we are a strange people–and who knows the Russians may put the first man into space–but we may go down–in history as the first to march along the road to peace on earth–
Think perhaps they may have something there–though at first I thought they were crazy–you never know–So long and many many thanks Yrs Ian
1 Fairweather was working on what would come to be recognised as some of his greatest paintings and which contributed to the triumph of his exhibitions at Macquarie Galleries 14–23 June 1961 and 15–27 August 1962.
2 Sibyl Hathaway, Dame of Sark: An Autobiography (1961).
3 From Jersey, the Fairweathers holidayed on the neighbouring island of Sark.
4 William Frederick Collings held office as the Seigneur of Sark, 1882–1927. Independent, stubborn and intemperate, he was frequently in dispute with the Reverend Louis Seichan, hence Fairweather’s reference to ‘the wars of Séchant’.
5 Fanny Lomax (1841–1921) was a painter who lived on Little Sark in the Channel Islands. Fairweather admired her portrait of his mother painted as a young girl. Its present location is unknown.
6 Eileen Clifford Brotherton, partner and companion to Queenie’s daughter Rosemary Waters.
143. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith– It was all very good news and I am very grateful–and feeling rather guilty that you should have come all this way and so little to show you–At least you saw the island smiling its best. Since then there have been Westerlies and now very near freezing–Patrick White also had a good day for his visit1–and I hope took away a good impression of the island–and was not too bored–it was a long way to come and a long way back–Kind of him to come–and do thank him from me–The book ‘The Aunts Story’ and the catalogue have not come yet but thank you in advance for those 2–The list of paperbacks has come–but I dont want to trouble you doing shopping for me–I have not yet really tried out Brisbane in that respect–there are some good looking bookshops here. I will first give them a try–My sister will I hope, get a lift from the writeups–personally I felt I was being blown up entirely too high for comfort–too high and too soon3
I feel I have a long way to climb yet before I can take off in a ski jump and ‘soar’ Quoth the raven more and more.4 Teeth chattering–must close with thanks
Sincerely
Yrs Ian Fairweather
1 Patrick White (1912–90), English-born Australian writer and Nobel Laureate for Literature (1973). White purchased Gethsemane in January 1961. After his visit to Bribie Island, he described Fairweather as ‘tall, rather frail, with a wonderful face – perfect brow, nose and mouth – and he is one of the few people who can wear a beard today without looking self-conscious’. See David Marr, Patrick White: A Life (1991).
2 The Aunt’s Story (1958), White’s third novel. The catalogue is likely the one produced for the Macquarie Galleries exhibition, 14–23 June 1961.
3 Reviews of the exhibition included James Gleeson, ‘An Art that Soars!’, Sun, 14 June; ‘Artistic Hermit’s Exciting Work’, Sydney Morning Herald, 14 June; William Salmon, ‘One Up, Two to Go’, Bulletin, 24 June; Robert Hughes, ‘The Quick and the Dead’, Nation, 1 July.
4 ‘Quoth the raven, “Nevermore”’ is a line from the long poem ‘The Raven’ (1854) by Edgar Allan Poe. ‘Nevermore’ is repeated in the following stanzas.
144. To Annette Waters
Dear Q, Herewith some more Blah Blah–about the show–Dont let it fool you–But yet the show it seems was quite a success–Patrick White–the author of Voss has been to see me1–He brought a copy of the famous Voss which he has given me–Alas I find it quite unreadable but I liked White–the son of a rich sheep property–Cheltenham and Cambridge–more English than Australian He bought my Gethsemene–36 sq.ft. so am grateful to him and hope he wont find it a White Elephant
I see Duncan Grinnell Milne with whom I escaped in Germany has written a book about De Gaule2–he was a liaison officer attached to him during the war–spoke French and German perfectly–but the book they damn entirely–Poor Milne there is no knowing what these critics will do to one–Today they smile on me–for no good reason–Tomorrow they may damn me for equally no reason–I damn them all the time–My teeth are chattering–Must stop.
So long Yrs Ian
The shortest day of the year down here–Thank God the sun will begin to climb again tomorrow–it is freezing–
1 Voss (1957), White’s fifth novel, is based on the life of the Prussian-born explorer and naturalist Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt. In 1848 the expedition he was leading to Central Australia disappeared without trace inland from the Darling Downs in Queensland.
2 Duncan Grinnell-Milne, The Triumph of Integrity: A Portrait of Charles de Gaulle (1961).
145. To Annette Waters
Dear Q.
These days are very strange–I hardly know if I am living in the past or the present–they are all mixed up–That book about Sark–you sent me–had the strangest effect, bringing it back so clearly–I seemed to be living those days over again–And now a book has come from the library–‘Revolt in Paradise’–by K’tut Tantri1–It is about Bali–An American woman, but born in Manx–she must have gone there at much the same time that I did–The description of her crossing in the moonlight from Banjuwangi in Java 2–across the strait there to Bali–and the beginning of her great adventure–It might have been my own experience but in reverse–it was from there on a moonlight night that I said goodbye to Bali and was rowed out to board the boat for Australia–It was moored in the strait loading bananas–a small Blue Funnel cargo boat The Gorgon3–(since sunk by the Japs.) The first class passengers (I was the only 3rd class) were mostly drunk and making a disgusting din in the quiet moonlight–The contrast to the Bali night with the sound of the Gamelan was terrible–my heart sank into my boots–I dont suppose the book would mean much to you but even as an adventure story it is worth reading–A wonderful experience–Enchanted islands–Her great grandmother in Manx was put in a barrel with spikes in it and rolled down from the top of a mountain–for being a witch–She almost suffered a similar fate in Bali–The wheel of Fate going full circle–And now, now comes another strange echo of the past An artist here called Molvig came to see me4–he was obviously moved by my hut under the pine trees–it has only just dawned on me that Molvig is a Norwegian name–So of course the pine trees rang a bell–but I might have guessed for he spoke of Knut Hamsun’s ‘Pan’–It was reading that book that sent me to live that winter in Norway–I still remember the opening lines of it in Norwegian–translated they are–‘I sit here and think of that time–of the hut I lived in–of the forest behind the hut’5 And I went all the way up to Tromsø inside the Arctic circle looking for that enchanted forest he describes–only to find there is no forest up there only stunted Arctic bushes–So came back and compromised with Kvam6–but it was a moment of enchantment that echoes still–Blessings Yrs Ian
1 K’tut Tantri was the adopted name of Scottish-born Muriel Stuart Walker, journalist, hotelier, guerrilla fighter and writer who forged close links to Indonesia. Her autobiography, Revolt in Paradise (1960), offers vivid account of the Indonesian struggle for independence.
2 Also spelled Banyuwangi. The Regency of Banyuwangi, located on the easternmost end of Java in Indonesia, serves as the port between Java and the island of Bali.
3 A cargo passenger motorship for service between Singapore and Australia.
4 Jon Molvig (1923–70), Brisbane-based Australian painter. His father, Helge Molvig, was a Norwegian-born sailor.
5 From the opening lines of Pan (1894): ‘These last few days I have thought and thought of the Nordland summer’s endless day. I sit here and think of it, and of a hut I lived in, and the forest behind the hut, and I’m writing this to help pass the time, and to amuse myself.’
6 A village on the Gudbrandsdalslagen River in Oppland County.
146. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith Thanks for the cheque and news about the show1–glad it wasn’t worse–In a bad way here–After my little dip into abstraction I find I cant get back again and am quite bushed–and what with the cold and all, immobilised–A bit worried but hope it will pass–like the flu–with the Spring–Sincerely Yrs
Ian Fairweather
1 ‘Ian Fairweather’, Macquarie Galleries, 14–23 June 1961.
147. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion–I am so bottled up here I just once in a way, have to do a little talking–mostly hot air–but please look on it as strictly confidential–I have been very worried–and thought I would consult the I Ching–a copy of which someone has given me1–it is in 2 fat volumes and dates back 3000 years–Called the Book of Changes–Really a treasure it is used as an oracle–It seems almost incredible that so long ago these old Chinese had grasped intuitively what modern physics is postulating today, that all matter consists ultimately of negative and positive particles in various combinations–The Chinese pictured them by lines – Yang the positive principle – – Yin the negative principle–combining these in 3s to form trigrams including Heaven [text in margin] they produce 8 trigrams–Doubling these to make a hexagram they get 64 variations–as it were the chemical elements–but they represent the spiritual elements of a situation–and as the Chinese include luck as an element in all things–You may consult the oracle by tossing a coin–For each line of the hexagram you must toss the coin 3 times so that to obtain a complete Hex you must throw 18 times–Well it is rather strange. I thought I would give it a try–I got the hex Li 離 which pictures a bogey with birds The Hex means a net–clinging and fire etc The ruler of the Hex are the two – – lines (feminine) of which lower is the stronger– [in the margin, the hexagram Li] [arrows pointing to] moving lines? [and, two related trigrams] Tui [The Joyous, Lake] and Sun [The Gentle, Wind]
It says a lot I haven’t worked out yet but amongst other things ‘Care of the cow brings good fortune’ The cow is the symbol of docility–Fire and the cow are connected–Fire the divine light first appeared (according to the Parsee religion) in mineral vegetable and animal before man–The cow was its animal incarnation–Light (So be wise–be careful, I suppose)
‘The foot prints run criss cross’ it says
‘In the light of the setting sun’ (the old Yang – at top)
‘Men either beat the pot and sing’
‘Or loudly bewail the approach of old age’–
Fire can be read as light–so the Hex is double = light, double clarity–that gives me hope I’ll sing.2
How about giving it a try, toss 18 times send me the count H or T in order–Whilst you toss you must think what it is you ask the oracle–That you dont tell me only the throws–I will tell you what the I Ching says about it–
P.S. I see I was included in the Whitechapel Show after all3–but the photo of my work there, they have sent me, is unrecognisable as my work–it belongs to a Kym Bonython of Adelaide–A photo of another picture in the Adelaide gallery I also fail to identify as my work. I haven’t yet got a photo of the 2 boys with duck All this from Adelaide–Something smells in Adelaide
P.P.S. Note if the coin has a King or Queen head on it will make a difference (it should be yarrow sticks or an old Chinese bronze coin with hole in middle) but with sticks very very complicated–
1 After his June visit, Patrick White had sent Fairweather a copy of the I Ching (Yijing), an ancient divination text and the oldest of the Chinese classics. The I Ching or Book of Changes, the Richard Wilhelm translation from the German (1924) rendered into English by Cary F. Baynes, with a foreword by C. G. Jung, was first published in Great Britain in two volumes in 1951. The translation by Jung’s student Baynes made the Chinese classic a global sensation. Each of the sixty-four hexagrams are composed of six broken or unbroken lines that represent yin or yang respectively.
2 Fairweather quotes from Wilhelm and Carey’s translation of the interpretation of the thirtieth hexagram, Li: see I Ching or Book of Changes (1968).
3 Fairweather was represented in ‘Recent Australian Painting’ by The Pool (1959), then owned by Kym Bonython.
148. To Alessandra Borgo-Caratti
Dear Mrs Borgo Caratti– It was most unwise of me to suggest that you should pay me a visit–I am really in no shape to receive visitors–I live in a grass hut with an earth floor–no place in which to receive a lady — Moreover the journey from Brisbane is a very tedious one and there is little to see here–I think you would be very bored–Frankly I dont advise it–Though of course–I am very flattered that you should have wished to come–
Sincerely Yrs
Ian Fairweather
Alessandra Borgo-Caratti (née Nibbi, 1923–2007). Italian-born academic who came to Melbourne with her parents in 1928. Her father, Gino Nibbi, established the Leonardo Art Shop, a centre for the city’s emerging modernist movement.
149. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion Thank goodness–warming up at last–I have worn your jersey all Winter and my sister sent me one she had knitted–I’ve worn them both one on top of the other and still been cold I do my best work at night–but these long winter nights–can only shiver in bed–So as usual at this time of the year–almost resolved to pull out and go back to Cairns–Where at least I can be warm. Still doing Chinese–The TSS of one book finished at last–My niece in London sending it to a publisher–awaiting news–but little hope Chief reason I do it–it helps with painting–often I just cant start up on a cold engine but can always do a bit of Chinese and rev up on that–Also can cool off with it if I get too worked up, and like painting it is an eternal mystery–if I really knew all about either I should leave them and go on to something else–Research–I like to call it–I have looked up your Hexagram in the I Ching–of all the people I have asked to dip into it–You are the only one so far who has consented to play tiddlywinks–I Ching means the Book of Changes and that is the core of the matter–how the hex change under certain circumstances–So far I have only succeeded in mastering one change–There are many–according to the moon–the points of the compass etc–but of course being Chinese everything is in reverse–North is at the bottom–South at the top–the place of honour where the sage sits contemplating the light–Then there is the Yellow River Map and the writing of the River Lo–All these terribly obscure1–Your Hex is no 32 with two lines in it that change the top one and the bottom – 
thus × = change
The Chinese character for it is 恒
忄= heart
亘 = revolve
The meaning Duration 2
The two images 
chen = thunder
sun = wind
Two phenomena that are always together
Two warnings–‘Mighty in the forward striding toes’
To go and not be equal to the task
‘To be powerful in the cheek bones’
(Keep a stiff upper lip?)
The two trigrams in the centre form Hex no 43 ‘Break Through’3
The two lines that change alter the Hex to no 14 ‘Possession in Great
Measure’4
Which looks on the face of it as though you will strike it lucky–Hope I got it right
Yrs Yan
1 Cosmological diagrams involving heavenly and earthly numbers, directions, and the five stages of change said to have been seen on the backs of mythic animals together with the eight trigrams.
2 Note added to letter: 恆心 [Hengxin, with circle inscribed around the characters, and] heart 心. Hengxin means perseverance or constancy of purpose.
3 Hexagram forty-three is Kuai, Break-through (Resoluteness). It is from this hexagram that Fairweather draws the quotations relating to ‘striding toes’ and ‘cheekbones’. See I Ching (1968).
4 Hexagram 14, Ta Yu (Da You), Possession in Great Measure. See I Ching.
150. To Helga Macnamara
Bribie–Sept 11– [postmarked 1961]
Dear Pip Was very glad to hear the Joy Ride did not have too bad a reception–Your publisher seems nice–but dont think there is much hope–and dont bother much about it–Perhaps later can try some agents–I have been given the names of some who did for some of the people here–So might be interested in something from down under Bill Harney who writes about the outback and whom I met in Darwin–gave me one hopeful lead1–At the moment more concerned about getting Chin ping Mei (Gold vase of Plum (blossom) 2–rolling–Think it would have more popular appeal–Have finished 2 more exercise books of it–One was returned yesterday from the Gallery in Sydney typed in triplicate–but as they charged nothing for doing it–feel I cant ask them to do any more–However it will help. There are 20 chapters in the book–I have done 14 now–you have the first 6–will send these 8–and the 4 in type–The Sydney typing is very clear–could you not get the old lady to use a black ribbon or possibly someone who works a bit quicker–life is short–will send some cash–but this month simply have to get a new pair of pants–Had a visit from an Italian woman–We went out and had spaghetti on the dunes3–Reminded me so much of our picnics in Sark or rather it was more like St Ouens–The dunes are wonderful here–all kinds of curious trees grow there–and in the low places mangroves The island lies on a shelf of pumicestone so there is always water under the sand though it looks very dry on top–was surprised to hear you called on Queenie but could not make her hear–Do you mean she has gone deaf too–Glad to hear Gouldie4 has found a place–This business of getting old–Be 70 end of this month–What ho she bumps5
Yrs Ian
P.S. Congratulations on the typing–How long has this been going on6–?
1 Bill Harney (1895–1962), author and bushman. In 1947 he had built himself a hut on the beach at Two Fella Creek near Darwin.
2 Jin Ping Mei, known in English translation as The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus, is a celebrated anonymous novel written in vernacular Chinese during the late sixteenth century and first published in 1618. It is renowned for its sexual explicitness.
3 Alessandra Borgo-Caratti. Fairweather also wrote to her with details of her hexagram, number twenty.
4 Efforts to identify this person were unsuccessful.
5 A popular phrase that featured in a music-hall song composed by Arthur J. Mills with lyrics by Harry Castlingfirst. The phrase appears in James Joyce, Ulysses (1918–20).
6 A reference to the song of that name (1927), music composed by George Gershwin and lyrics by Ira Gershwin.
151. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith– Glad to hear the old Bêche de mer is coming out of the dust sheets.1 It was one I rather liked at the time, though whether I should like it now I dont know–It is a strange experience to see ones things again after a lapse of time–sometimes pleasant but sometimes not–I remember one that was a great pleasure–The first painting I had ever done–It was for the Summer composition at the Slade School–The subject was Rebecca at the Well I was very desperate–for it wouldn’t come out but in the last days it began to grow by itself and turned into something quite different from what I had intended–I was so ashamed of it that I would not go to hear the criticism and left it after the show to be thrown away–but a friend rescued it and took it with him to Hailebury College–where he had become an Art Master–When I saw it again–some years later–it was framed and hung above his fireplace–Time had mellowed the colour which had sunk in–it looked fine–But my friend was going out of his mind–he was later taken to an asylum–and has since died–a sad loss of a great talent 2 In a moment of pique he covered my painting and the frame with a thick coat of copal varnish–It quite ruined it–but I rescued the remains and stored them in the garage of a house then occupied by my sister in Mill Hill3–I was once more ashamed of it–and this time there was nobody who liked it–when my sister moved she left it behind in the garage–I have often wondered if time and dust would defeat the copal varnish and bring out the painting as it was before–Thinking of it the other day–I remembered that in the process of it growing by itself–a little man on a triangular raft with oars had appeared right in the middle of the painting–he had no business to be there–had no connection with the subject–but fitted so well into the composition that I had left him–Come to think of it–that is really very strange That was back in 1922–I had never seen or thought of a triangular raft with oars at that time–an example of pre cognition or something of the sort–that might interest the Society for Psychical Research4–So have tried to trace the old painting but fear the trail is lost–The thatch is quite a success but has got me completely disorganised–Trying to get back into step–Hope to have some work so send–soon– Sincerely
Yrs
P.S. Don’t seem to remember Sylphide5–if an alias for negato an improvement–
1 Bêche de mer was first exhibited in ‘Ian Fairweather’, Macquarie Galleries, 19 November – 1 December 1958.
2 Joseph Chambers was Head of Art at Haileybury College in Hertford, 1921–23. Like Fairweather he studied at the Slade School of Fine Art on an ex-serviceman’s grant, 1919–21. He died in 1931.
3 Queenie Waters and her husband lived at the Red House, Mill Hill, London, 1923–45.
4 Founded in London in 1882, it pioneered scholarly research into human experiences that challenged contemporary scientific models.
5 Sylphide (1959), included in the ‘Christmas Exhibition’ at Macquarie Galleries, 1959.
152. To Marion Smith
Dear Marion–Yes the photo of the duck (swan) has turned up1 They charged me £2.15 for the darn thing–But after looking at it–No I wont send it you–It was painted so long ago–1934–I was sentimentally attached to the darn thing–It was in a south sea village on a spit of sand going out into the water with coconuts fishnets and boats like canoes drawn up along the beach–I was living in one of the houses under the coconuts–and went around with a sketchbook and loved everything that I saw–But now it is different–I have pulled down the blinds–and never look out–I dont paint those sort of things any more–they rather horrify me–I’m suffering as usual from Spring unrest–I want to go north and have a holiday collecting shells but have got so rooted here–and it would be so long before I could get settled in a new place and back to work again–Still life is very dull at times–Bribie is changing fast and not for the better–at least not for me–why not come down and look the old place over. You have never seen my new hut.
Yrs Yan
P.S. Best way, forget about grammar–get interesting book say Dante’s (Divine Comedy Divina Comedia) and start right in with dictionary a page or even a few lines a day
1 Fairweather’s painting Philippine Boys Carrying Duck was exhibited at the Redfern Gallery in 1936 and later at the National Gallery London in 1940 as Bali Boys and Swan. It was bequeathed to the Art Gallery of South Australia by Edward Marsh through the Contemporary Art Society, London, in 1954. Fairweather had written to the Art Gallery of South Australia to obtain a postcard of the painting, and later requested that it be retitled Mãra (1934).
153. To Treania Smith
Dear Miss Smith– Durrell’s book has arrived and many thanks–I have only had time to glance into it–The old expatriate Anglo-Indian flavour!–I think I shall like him better when he is dealing with animals1–Patrick White has sent me a copy of his new book Riders in the Chariot2–it is a lot more readable than Voss & the Aunts Story–in fact quite an achievement–I still dont see why Leichardt has to be denigrated and the bandit Kelly receive VIP treatment–from Nolan3–By contrast–Durrell seems very innocent he is not trying to promote anything–a violin among the trumpets–chamber music but now it is all commercial broadcasting–
As you see–somewhat depressed–hence the yen to join the Nature Colony4–out of the rat race–Also been taking a bad beating from the painting–life then seems very dull–whereas just living, in the Cairns rainforest was an adventure–Hey ho. Spring unrest. Must art really have a purpose other than itself My attempt to get a Chinese dictionary here has come to a dead end–Will you let me know if there is any hope at your end–Otherwise have to write to England–Glad to hear you are about again and many thanks for cheque Yrs Ian Fairweather
1 Gerald Durrell was born in Jamshedpur, India. He founded the Jersey Zoological Park (now the Durrell Wildlife Park) in 1958.
2 Patrick White’s sixth novel, published in London in 1961.
3 Sidney Nolan (1917–92) painted his famous series depicting the bushranger Ned Kelly in 1946–47.
4 Fairweather had received in the mail a pamphlet from ‘the Nature Colony’ in Cairns, to which he had responded and ascertained that they were ‘not only strict vegetarians they dont smoke and I think dont even drink tea I couldn’t even make the grade’.
154. To Annette Waters
Bribie–Nov 14 [postmarked 1961]
Dear Q– Guy Faulks and the bonfires have gone by and now the real heat has set in here–Very pleasant till the mossies begin in a few weeks time–Whilst you were crossing from Jersey–I was packing up and sending off another batch of paintings–I am trying to return from these abstractions but cant do it–in the end one has to choose–the painting or ones personal interests–one cant have both–with me the paint wins in the end but only after a struggle–Think I told you our waterworks are completed and the Governor came down to turn on the tap1 I went today to see the new housing development These huge earthmoving machines at work the drivers nearly naked and black with dust–an inferno of noise–The poor Roos that have been evicted were standing around looking lost–I ran into a group of them and they would hardly get out of the way to let me pass–These big grey ones stand a good six foot and can be nasty A clergyman who kept a tame one that went bad on him had to go to hospital The Mickeys (butcher birds) are coming in with their new families and there is a fight every day–Too bad, I had a bandicoot in Cairns that came every night to eat out of my hand till the others came–then he lost his tail and then a foot–They are all willing to be friendly but never with each other Very sad about all the changes here new shops new people coming in–but no stopping the wheels going round–Time marches on–Still I’m pooped!
Read a book by the Jersey Zoo man Durrell–Did you ever meet him?–seems nice–his brother Lawrence rather famous–Crazy about bowling greens here–saw them making another to day–we have 3 in this small place–They cut out turfs of this non mowing grass–Then put the turfs through a feed chopping machine–makes them go much further–and more even Time Gentlemen please2–Yrs Ian
1 Henry Abel Smith, a British Army officer who served as governor of Queensland, 1958–66.
2 The phrase called out in English pubs to indicate closing.
155. To Annette Waters
D. Q. At last some photos A nice friendly chemist who has a week-end house here took them–Not a good one of the old hut with me in front of it–it is hard to photograph being so mixed up with trees–Until the young trees now growing round it are higher and can have their lower branches cut–you have to be too close to it to see it–Sad, because it can look very nice–The open summer house where I wash? cook etc–and round which the driftwood is put–is not so bad–But the two he was taking of me on the sly are remarkable–He has ambitions to be a writer–but obviously he has an eye for a camera shot–Young, married with a baby he would do much better to stick to his camera I think1–Curiously, though he knows much about books, he knows little about art yet at once he liked my paintings–I was flattered for he is no fool–and definitely has an eye –Bye for now–the mosquitoes make writing no pleasure–Fear this may take a long time to reach you but let me know when you get it
Yrs Ian
1 Clark Massie (b. 1934); his wife, Valmai; and their son, Andrew. See photograph, preliminary p. ii.
156. To Clark Massie
Dear Massey–The photos are fine and just in time for me to send to my sister for Christmas–Very much obliged–Must have put you back some, getting them blown please let me know if I owe you & what? You are a wily old bird–the ones you took of me [not] knowing–are quite remarkable as camera shots–Perhaps you are overlooking something. Perhaps you have a talent there–why not push that door a little open–it is a big field–and one not much touched by Australians –To write these days it seems you must have a grouch against someone or something–be a reformer–preach–but in disguise–Am sending you the Riders–because White is Australian–I dont want it back–hope you may like it–I do and I dont–They go for a ride (in the Chariot?) and get bumped off–Man’s Fate?–IS it? I dont understand–Poetry always exasperates me. I have not the peace of mind to fool [?] I cannot roll a phrase on the tongue and relish its overtones–I have a low taste in literature–I fear–I like the bald statement the roots and the branch–rather than the flower–but I wish I didn’t–
Very disappointed with Meister Eckhart1 which have got at last from Library–a theological roundabout–Words to explain words–So back she goes–unread–
Many thanks for the addresses–will try same–Think I remember the Oxford shop2–Spent many happy moments there–browsing–when at Exeter College 2 terms doing forestry3–will give it a try–must close down Mossies are getting bad–in spite of a spray and a coil (Earth Tiger)
Wish to apologise for asking so much and all my thanks–looking forward to seeing you again–Regards to yourself, your Mrs and son an heir
Happy Christmas sincerely
Ian Fairweather
(forestier manqué)4
Clark John Massie (b. 1934). Brisbane-based pharmacist and later senior public servant who, with his wife, Valmai, had shared ownership of a family holiday house on Bribie Island. A chance meeting on Bribie led to Clark Massie and Fairweather sharing a keen interest in books. Faiweather also enjoyed social occasions with the Massies there and in Brisbane. In 1963 the Massies moved to Canberra.
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1 Mediaeval German theologian, philosopher and mystic.
2 Likely Blackwell’s in Broad Street.
3 In October 1919 Fairweather had entered the Forest Officer’s Postgraduate Course at Oxford, where he was attached to Exeter College.
4 ‘Failed forester’, an ironic reference to the career he might have had.
157. To Annette Waters
Dear Q. This is Happy New Year in Chinese 恭賀年禧 [arrow pointing to characters in left margin] –I copied it from a Christmas card a bookshop in Hong Kong sent me–I’m so please[d] about getting it after trying for years to get a Chinese book that will be worthwhile to translate There is now some hope of getting something good at last–I cant tell you the numbers of people I have written to–Amongst others a Chinese student at the U here who at least answered my letter–but when she (it was a she) found out I had no frivolous intentions but only wished to discuss Chinese with her hung up on me–The Chinese consul did not even deign to reply–and many others–Now at last a reply by air mail and even a Christmas card–Things are looking up–I often wish I had kept more in touch with the School of Oriental Studies where I went for a term or two while I was at the Slade–but one cant do two things at once. The Slade left me no time so I had to drop it–but they could have been a great help–I am reading Snellgrove’s Buddhist Himalaya1–He was commissioned and financed by the School of O.S. and has spent years climbing all over the Himalays Nepal and Thibet–and he is still out there–The lucky s. o. b.–Can you imagine a more delightful existence–His book is worth reading–You might like it–Really gives one some information about what Buddhism is–Sad part is in its home in India it is almost dead and now, Thibet where it was still alive is finished–They are starting a refugee colony of Thibetan children in Switzerland Perhaps the next Dalai Lama may be discovered there 2–I did not know before that there is also a girl lama chosen–the Princess Komari by another sect of Buddhists Charming little child3–but the last one chosen begged to be let off and just remain a little girl–no fun being a princess–I have been so delighted by an idea which I discovered in a childrens comic paper–of all places!–About the Moons of Mars–Demos and Phobos–they are very peculiar–They spin exactly on the equator–as no other moons do Then they are much too close to the surface–as near as the satellites we shoot around the earth–And now they have been weighed–dont ask me how–and they turn out to be too light to be made of any known substance for their size The conclusion is that they are hollow and some Russian has advanced the theory that they are abandoned space ships left by the Martians when they took off to a more habitable planet That, and the curious canals you have no doubt heard about adds up to quite a conundrum
I have some good news about sales to start the New Year with. Thank Goodness And the Queensland Gallery writes they propose to make a retrospective show of all my work which will then travel to the other state galleries–Quite an honour–but it will be about two years hence–However on the way–The biggest noise in the world this morning before sun up, is the bees–All the wattles, our Christmas trees, round my house are in flower–Happy Christmas
Yrs Ian.
1 Buddhist Himālaya: Travels and Studies in Quest of the Origins and Nature of Tibetan Religion (1957). David Llewellyn Snellgrove (1920–2016), lecturer in Tibetan at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
2 After the Dalai Lama fled Communist-controlled Tibet in 1959 many Tibetans followed and took refuge in neighbouring India and Nepal. In the early 1960s a number of Tibetan communities were established in villages in eastern Switzerland, including many orphans.
3 A photograph of the Kumārı ¯, divine princess, is reproduced in Snellgrove.
158. To Aline Stafford
Dear Ben– Will you do something for me! Have you access to a big dictionary or encyclopedia or something?–I have been reading Snellgrove’s Buddhist Himalaya–Interesting but exasperating He and Konze1 and Waley–our top Sinologues–
He was commissioned by the School of Oriental Studies to travel all over the Himalayas–He is still out there the lucky So and so–but like the others he swamps one with erudition and really tells one nothing–What interested me was the part about Mandi and the Kulu Valley–There is another unsolved mystery!–You remember Amrit who was going back to India from Jersey to marry the Rajah of Mandi2–When I went through there I saw a foundation stone of a school laid by Amrit Caur of Mandi–Asking about her I was told she was the disciple of Ghandi3 If you knew our Amrit you would know that was quite impossible–and yet this disciple of Ghandi is the same name Amrit Caur–and a daughter of Kaparthala–That is a mystery–It seems Mandi was a place of pilgrimage for Thibetans Some Buddha relic in a Stupa there–I wish I had known at the time how near Thibet was I remember going up a valley near there that went straight up in the air and seeing a village hanging on the brink of nothing–I was tempted to go on–If I had, I find I would have got into the Spitti Valley4 and Thibet–It seems this was the way the Thibetans got most of their Buddhism from India–The Sanscrit texts–Always in these accounts one comes back to Sanscrit–From Kashmiri the Thibetans got their script (a sound track not picture writing like Chinese) Is Kashmir then the home of Sanscrit?5 Who are the people who made it And what has happened to them–These pundits leave one in the air–If you could look it up for me I’d be obliged–I once had a Sanscrit-Chinese dictionary in French–but left it to rot on a mud bank in Cairns–too tired to carry it further–what a life–one can keep nothing–I see the old Russian professor Roerich whom I went to see in Kulu has written a book ‘The Blue Annals of gZon–nu–dpal’ I’d much like to see that6–He was also a painter I went to him hoping he would help me sell my paintings–There was also a very charming Col Mohn up there with a beautiful quail for a watchdog–I feel I was near to something up there–but missed it–it wasn’t my fate
Yrs Ian
P.S enclosed some views of B[ribie]
Aline Margaret Jane (Ben) Stafford (1874–1962). A sister of Ian Fairweather, born in Brechin, Scotland. Noted in the family as an ‘artist’, she appears to have encouraged her brother’s interest in art. She married Lieutenant Frank Tillard in 1900 but was widowed shortly after. She married Major Percival Stafford in 1916.
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1 Eberhart (Edward) Conze, Anglo-German scholar best known for his pioneering translations of Buddhist texts, including the Diamond Sutra.
2 H. H. Joginder Sen Bahadur of Mandi was the 18th Raja of Mandi. On 5 February 1923 he married Amrit Kaur (1904–48), daughter of Maharaja Jagatjit of Kapurthala in the Punjab region. Fairweather’s father was physician to the Maharajah of Kapurthala and it is likely that this is the Amrit to whom Fairweather refers. Queenie had been born in Kapurthala in 1884.
3 Rajkumari Amrit Kaur (1889–1964), daughter of Sir Harnam Singh. She was a politician and advocate of women’s rights, and later secretary to Mahatma Gandhi.
4 A desert mountain valley high in the Himalayas in Himachal Pradesh near Tibet.
5 The Vale of Kashmir is regarded as the home of Sanskrit language and literature, and was for centuries the home of the greatest Sanskrit scholars.
6 The Blue Annals by Gö Lotsawa (1948–53), the writings of the fifteenth-century scholar and translator Gö Lotsawa Zhönnupel (‘gos lo tsa’a ba gzhon nu dpal), was translated by the Tibetan scholar George Roerich, Nikolai Roerich’s son, with Gedun Chöpel.
