Painter, printmaker, stained-glass artist, illustrator and poster designer, was born on 18 April 1894 in Terrington on the edge of Malton, Yorkshire, not far from York. Profoundly influenced by York Minster, its medieval glass and music, he studied at the Scarborough Art School and won a scholarship to the Slade, London. He drew, painted and exhibited and was soon appointed a leading draughtsman at the long established stained-glass firm of Whitefriars {Powell’s of Whitefriars?}. He was well established by 1915, when he enlisted and served in France, Italy and Greece. He contracted TB and was a sick man when demobilised in 1919. With the help of a family friend he migrated to Queensland in 1921, recovered his health completely and fell in love with the place. Immediately after his arrival he began work on a WWI Memorial window in Ipswich; he also worked in the Southport area. In 1941 Pat Prentice worked with him drawing cartoons for his glass. He did windows in St John’s Cathedral, Brisbane, and in churches in Rockhampton and in Newcastle, NSW.

Bustard worked in many mediums and on a variety of scale, including doing large mural and dome paintings. He began etching on arrival in Brisbane. His etchings and drypoints of early Brisbane architecture are well known, but he also did seascapes e.g. Greenmount 1920-30 (etching, Gold Coast City Art Gallery). He designed the poster, For Your Winter Holiday, North Queensland: Sunshine in a Tropic Fairyland c.1930s, published Qld Govt Tourist Bureau (NGA). Bustard was said to have been an itinerant painter who did them in return for board and lodging.

Bustard died at Southport {Labrador, acc. Adlington} on 24 August 1973.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1996

Last updated:

2007