COL JORDAN

THE ORIGINAL 1968 EXHIBITION AT THE NATIONAL Gallery of Victoria, The Field, attempted to align Australian art with international modernist trends. Despite not receiving a formal art education, you had a dedicated awareness of what was happening outside Australia. How did you become fascinated by hard-edged abstraction and colour field painting?

In 1963 I was a schoolteacher and had to do country service, so my wife and I chose the town closest to Sydney. Wollongong had an active art scene where I met Bill (William) Peascod, a successful texture painter who became a mentor of mine. Bill revealed to me that there was a possibility that I be an artist, something I’d always wanted to be. I