Jeffrey Makin

Jeffrey Thomas Makin (born 1943) is an Australian artist, art critic, and director of Port Jackson Press Australia. He is best known for his paintings en plein air of the Australian landscape.

Early life and education Makin was born in 1943 in the city of Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Son to father Frederick Campbell Makin and mother Mary Makin (née Lanyon), his affiliation with art and painting began at an early age. Makin was given a set of pastels from his grandmother and told they had belonged to a family relative, supposedly descended from the renowned English portrait painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds. From 1962 to 1966, Makin completed a Diploma in Painting at the National Art School in Sydney where he also received an Art Progression Student Scholarship.

Later in life, Makin would go on to complete a Masters by Research at Deakin University in Geelong, Victoria, compiling his thesis entitled: "Meaning, Significance, and the Sublime in the Depiction of the Australian landscape".

Career After graduating in 1966, Makin held his first exhibition at the Watters Gallery, and began to be awarded art prizes.

Makin is best known for his paintings en plein air of the Australian landscape. His development as an artist and landscape painter was influenced by various techniques, including traditional landscapes, Modernism, Impressionism and Abstraction. Through the 1970s he travelled across Europe, the US and the UK, expanding his knowledge of various art forms. As an example, came during a residency at the Gloucestershire College of Art in Cheltenham, UK, in 1978, Makin viewed a Georgio Morandi exhibition that left a lasting impression. In particular Makin was impressed by European landscape tradition in works by Salvator Rosa, Paul Cézanne, and David Bomberg. Upon returning to Australia, Makin revisited several Australian works, notably those of Eugene Von Guerard and Fred Williams. Together, Williams and Makin would find places and landmarks that had been painted by members of the Heidelberg School artists camps including Tom Roberts, and Arthur Streeton of the Australian impressionist movement. The 1982 death of his good friend and mentor Fred Williams had a profound impact on Makin and his future work. Not long after, Makin exhibited his first sell-out show, the 'Ash Wednesday' series at Realities Gallery, Melbourne, and his first European show at Bernard Jacobson Gallery in London, in 1983. a film documentary and a touring exhibition.

Makin's motifs included seascapes, waterfalls and pastoral vistas. Notable locations such as the You Yangs (first introduced to Makin by Williams), the Grampians and Wannon Falls. In 1990, he resigned from his academic post at the Royal Institute of Technology (RMIT) to become a full-time artist. This followed his tenure in an artist-in-residence program at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

On his return to Australia in 1991, Makin lived in a historic property, Glen Harrow, in the Dandenong Ranges, which provided him with a lush garden and surrounding landscape in which he could enhance his technique. He has contributed to numerous magazines, and has several books to his name, the latest being Critical Moments, published by MacMillan in 2011.

Awards and recognition Early in his career, Makin was awarded numerous art prizes, including: Hugh Makin is a bespoke furniture designer who runs the Makin Workshop.