Greg travelling in outback South Australia

As a child, during school holidays, Greg stayed on sheep and cattle stations in outback Queensland and went on numerous bushwalking trips to national parks in S.E Queensland. Later student holidays included hitch-hiking trips to New Zealand and Tasmania. This formed a lifelong love of travel and the Australian landscape in particular.

At the age of 22 Greg spent 6 months in Italy studying Italian art and language. He also visited many of Europes major museums and art collections during this time. At 25, Greg travelled on the first of five trips to India. This proved to be the major inspiration for his first solo exhibition entitled “Siddhartha“ after the novel by Herman Hess. Exhibitions of this theme were held in France and Australia. These early works reflect a strong influence from Indian Mughal painting.

Greg at Injuluk Hill, Oenpelli, Arnhem Land

Greg had also developed a keen interest in Aboriginal culture. Exhibitions held in the early 1990’s continued an exploration of the Australian landscape as well as documenting remote Aboriginal sacred sites and rock art. These were inspired via a series of field trips through outback South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory. Painting locations included Kakadu National Park, Arnhem Land, Uluru, The Simpson Desert, Wilpena Pound and Wilsons Promontory. Some visits inevitably were by light plane and even helicopter and this view of river systems, salt lakes and ancient geological formations also became artistic inspiration.

This theme has continued intermittently over a 20 year period and has become the main subject matter of Greg’s work. In recent years other influences have included travels and studies overseas which inspired a series of exhibitions using computer-generated imagery depicting ancient civilizations.

During Greg’s professional life he has worked both part and full time as an artist and as arts administrator, gallery director and curator. At 25 he was in charge of the Creative Arts and Fine Arts Departments of the Council of Adult Education, Melbourne. At nights and on weekends he, like many artists began painting outside of his “day job”. The first of four exhibitions at Melbourne’s Raya Gallery began a series of sell out exhibitions and a career as an artist.

Greg has since been Managing Director (and part owner) of Australia’s oldest publishing company of fine art prints, Port Jackson Press Australia. He worked with many of Australia’s leading contemporary artists in the production of etchings, lithographs, silk-screen prints and other print media. As Manager of Northern Editions at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Greg continued to work with many of Australia's most famous Aboriginal artists. From 2005 to 2010 Greg was manager of (World Vision’s indigenous art gallery) “Birrung” in Sydney which continued his journey in working with remote Aboriginal communities.

In his professional, artistic and personal development, travel has been Greg’s greatest inspiration. Through working with Indigenous Australians he has been to many sites unseen by tourists and given permission to paint and draw rock art and sacred sites. Overseas, he has completed work assignments in London and Paris, hiked in Kashmir and the Himalayan foothills, completed a camel safari in the Sahara Desert and a canoe trek on the Ganges River. These adventures as well as exploring archaeological sites in Greece, Italy, the Middle East, China, Mexico and SE Asia have enriched his artistic output. In 2011 he is continuing his thirst for knowledge through further study both at the University of New South Wales. and with intended overseas residencies.

Greg has often combined a living and work environment in his home. He has now lived in four Australian cities and in most cases has renovated/built a space to create and/or showcase his work. Previous homes and gardens have featured in three Australian national design magazines (Vogue Living, House and Garden, Home Beautiful) and newspapers such as The Age or The Herald Sun in Melbourne.

All images are copyright © 2011 Greg Mallyon. Unauthorised reproduction prohibited without prior written consent.