David Schlunke is a NSW based landscape and portrait painter. After sharing a house with Arthur Murch in the early 1960s he began part time art training at the East Sydney Technical College. In 1961/62 he assisted Murch in the painting of his large (extant) mural, Foundation of European Settlement , at the overseas passenger terminal at Circular Quay, Sydney. By the mid 1960s Schlunke began to regularly exhibit his painting around the country with shows in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide. Schlunke had an exhibition in Madrid in 1985 and a retrospective at the Wagga Wagga City Art Gallery in 1987/88. Schlunke was selected as an exhibitor in the Wynne Prize many times and also had three works selected for the Archibald Prize, including a self portrait, and images of the poet Douglas Stewart and journalist Neil O’Reilly. The artists works in several media including oil, acrylic, pastels and pencil. As a commited conservationist, environmental themes are a recurring subject in his imagery. The cover of his retrospective catalogue shows his 1985 portrait of conservationist, Milo Dunphy.

In 1968 he illustrated The Roo Shooter by Keith Weatherly (Macmillan).

Writers:

Clifford-Smith, Silas

Date written:

2008

Last updated:

2011