Tiny town bats well above average when it comes to artists

If the locals of Bundeena were ever to have a whip-round to put up a “big thing” in the centre of the village, only a fool would bet against it being a Big Paintbrush.

For an isolated community of about 2000 people in the Royal National Park, the place is awash with an extraordinary number of daubers, both exalted and humble.

Approach anyone in the street, ask how their latest work is going, and chances are you’ll quickly find yourself in a home studio/garage, drinking cask chardonnay and making appreciative noises over works in progress for a show called Bundeena Ferry or Jibbon Dreaming.

Jiawei Shen in his Bundeena studio in 2010.Credit: Sahlan Hayes

If that all sounds a little mean, I don’t intend it to be (and can scarcely afford it to be – after 26 years living in this extraordinary community, many of those painters, sculptors, ceramicists and photographers are my friends and neighbours). Bundeena’s identity owes a massive amount to its busy artist community.

Quite why the practice of making art should have spread in this little village quicker than COVID at an anti-vax convention is open to conjecture, but the natural environment must have something to do with it. The pristine beaches, waterways and bushland are an endless source of inspiration for our artists.

Among names you have never heard of (unless they happen to be friends, neighbours, etc) are a sizeable number of art-world big hitters, none bigger than Chinese emigre Jiawei Shen.

One of the nation’s most successful portrait painters (John Howard, Princess Mary of Denmark, etc) and multiple Archibald finalist as well as the creator of vast “history paintings”, Shen still opens his studio for the art trail on the first Sunday of each month, happily chatting at length to anyone who feels like dropping in.

Bundeena blues artist Sally King.Credit: Natalie Grono

I well remember interviewing him nearly 20 years ago. We discussed one of his best-known works – a piece from the 1970s that he painted in China while working on a collective farm in a bleak region of Manchuria.

The work, Standing Guard for Our Great Motherland, came to the attention of Jiang Qing – Madame Mao – and was selected for an exhibition of propaganda posters in Beijing.

In high excitement, Shen travelled to Beijing to see the work, only to discover to his horror that Madame Mao had the faces of the two key figures repainted because she considered them not heroic enough.

Decades later, Shen had reacquired the original. As he told the story he went to a stack of canvases, pulled out the painting and said, gleefully: “But now, I have changed it back to how it should be!”

Alison Clouston and Boyd are mainstays of the Bundeena art and music scene.Credit: Gus Armstrong

Shen takes his place in the Bundeena artist hall of fame alongside many others including Bulgari Award winner Ildiko Kovacs, Lan Wang (Shen’s wife), Bob Marchant, Leanne Thompson and Alison Clouston. Perhaps best-known of all is Archibald and Dobell prizes winner Garry Shead, who has his first solo Bundeena show at The Little Gallery in the village’s main street, which features new work responding to his iconic DH Lawrence series of the 1990s.

The yang to the ying of Bundeena’s visual art is its thriving music scene. The proliferation of performance everywhere can probably be blamed on the fact there is not a lot happening here – especially after the last ferry leaves.

Bundeena is a long way off the touring route for pretty much every artist. The last big act to play here was Eric Bogle, who performed to a sold-out crowd last year, but big names are very few and far between.

Bernie McGann used to deliver the mail in Bundeena.Credit: Peter Karp

A DIY music scene has evolved, and from sea shanty singalongs to folk nights, and big band sessions to blues afternoons, the joint is jumping more often than not.

Home-grown stars include veteran blues singer Sally King, evergreen soul legend Peter Morgan (BumpCity) and mononymic sax virtuoso Boyd.

Older residents still remember when jazz royalty Bernie McGann delivered their mail and practised his alto sax in bushland after work. McGann’s Bundeena remains one of the finest hard-bop albums ever produced.

Central to the thriving community music scene are the Ramshackle Orkestra (full disclosure: I am a founding member). The ensemble proudly accepts anyone, at any level, on any instrument and somehow makes it all work together in a ramshackly sort of way.

They can often be heard welcoming slightly bemused tourists getting off the morning ferry with spirited renditions of Eastern European folk or New Orleans jazz on instruments including ukes, cellos, fiddles and trombones.

Eccentric, joyful and often a little confused, the Ramshackle Orkestra is the perfect metaphor for the cultural life of Bundeena.