Jack Absalom

Jack Absalom was an Australian artist, author and adventurer who was born in Port Augusta, South Australia in 1927. He grew up along the Nullarbor Plain, where he learned bush skills from the Indigenous Australians who lived there. He moved to Broken Hill, New South Wales in 1949, where he worked as a miner and a kangaroo shooter. He discovered his talent for painting in 1972, when he accompanied two other artists to the Flinders Ranges and felt an urge to paint the landscape. He became one of the founding members of The Brushmen of the Bush, a group of five artists who exhibited their paintings of the Australian outback all over the world and raised money for charity. He also wrote several books and starred in several television series produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), covering survival techniques and documentaries on the Australian outback. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2006 for his service to the visual arts and the community. He died in Broken Hill on 22 March 2019 at the age of 91. He is survived by his six children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He is remembered as a larger-than-life character who captured the beauty and spirit of the Australian outback in his paintings and writings.