Design and Art Australia Online

Francis Clinton Sherrin was born on 18 September 1893 at Woolloongabba, Brisbane, the only son of Joseph and Pauline Fredrica Sherrin whose family were pioneers of the Cleveland area. He showed an early interest in paintings when he attended schools in Brisbane and Ipswich. He married May Gwynneth Bowen at All Saints Anglican Church, Brisbane, and their only child, June, was born in 1928. He had no formal art training apart from some lessons in watercolour technique from Vida Lahey .

Sherrin had a long and active involvement in the Brisbane art scene. He was a member of the Royal Queensland Art Society and exhibited in the years from 1920 to 1949. He was a foundation member, Vice-Chairman (1941 – 46) and President (1946 – 56) of the Half Dozen Group of Artists. He was a member of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, a member of the Fellowship of Australian Artists (Victoria), and in 1954 was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal for his services to art in Queensland. Sherrin was a trustee of the then Queensland National Art Gallery from December 1951 to April 1959 when it became the Queensland Art Gallery.

Sherrin spent his working life in the engineering section of the Postmaster General’s Department, Brisbane, apart from a few years when he was transferred to Bundaberg. He made frequent weekend outdoor sketching and painting trips with fellow artist Charles Lancaster, completing the majority of his works 'en plein air’. In his latter years, Sherrin spent more time in his studio completing what were initially outdoor studies. Sherrin occasionally joined members of the Marburg Group (James Wieneke, George Wilson Cooper , Harry Cotterell, Charles Lancaster and Toowoomba artists Herbert Carstens and Ralph Weppner).

Oil painting was the focus of Sherrin’s work but from the 1940s onward he increasingly explored watercolour as a medium. Although he painted the majority of his restrained and gentle landscape paintings in and around Brisbane, Sherrin’s catalogue entries and sketchbooks reveal working drawings from North Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales. He particularly admired the work of, and was good friends with the artist Will Ashton , whom he met on one of his trips to Sydney. Sherrin exhibited until 1967 and died in Brisbane on 18 March 1968.

Writers:

Cooke, Glenn R

Date written:

2009

Last updated:

2011