Mark Staniforth 
A new exhibition called Art of the Willunga District’s Built Heritage opens at the Onkaparinga Gallery at the Onkaparinga Arts Centre at Port Noarlunga between 16 September and 24 October 2022.
Curated by the National Trust of South Australia (Willunga Branch), The Art of the Willunga District’s Built Heritage exhibition presents original artworks, including oil paintings, watercolour paintings and drawings, of the built environment, inclusive of heritage buildings, historic sites and events in the Willunga District, including Willunga, Aldinga, Port Willunga, McLaren Vale and other locations, by past and present artists. Artists will include Anton Riebe, Valerie Wright, Frank Barrett, Jane Price, Chris Olsen, Peg Berry, Lesley Redgate, G.F. Gregory junior.
The exhibition aims to inspire, interest and educate visitors about the long, and continuing, tradition of artistic representations of heritage buildings, historic sites and events in the Willunga District.
Among the artists featured is well-known Australian artist, Kenneth Jack. (See below)
Art of the Willunga District’s Built Heritage
Friday, 16 September 2022 – Monday, 24 October 2022
10.00 AM – 04:00 PM
Onkaparinga Gallery
Arts Centre, 22 Gawler Street, Port Noarlunga 5167
Exhibition opening
6pm on Friday 16 September
Onkaparinga Arts Centre at Port Noarlunga
RSVP: Mark Staniforth
willungaheritagewalks@gmail.com
0408 802 198
Kenneth William David Jack (1924-2006)
Kenneth Jack was a postwar artist who was born in 1924 in Caulfield, Victoria. He was educated at Melbourne High School then Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT) and Melbourne Teachers College where he completed the Drawing Teachers Primary and Secondary certificates. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1942 and served as a Survey Draftsman.
After the war, under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme for returned military personnel, Kenneth gained the Art Teachers Diploma and the Trained Teachers Certificate (1947) and went on to teach at Box Hill Boys High School and Upway High School (1948-1968).
Kenneth Jack was a well-respected watercolor artist who frequently painted works depicting buildings, towns and old mine workings. He became a professional artist in 1968 after giving up his job as senior instructor at the Caulfield Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
He visited South Australia on many occasions including in 1970 when he painted watercolors of buildings at Clarendon, McLaren Vale and Willunga.
He was elected to the Royal Society of Watercolorists (RWS) in 1977, awarded an MBE “for services to the Arts” in 1982 and in 1987 awarded the Order of Australia (AM) “for services to the Arts, particularly watercolor painting”. He won over 40 art prizes and exhibited at galleries in NSW, Victoria and South Australia.
His works can be found in many of the Australian State capital and regional art collections, the National Gallery of Australia, the War Memorial as well as overseas including in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Royal Collection at Windsor.
He was a prolific painter whose works date mainly from the mid 1960s to his death in 2006. Kenneth Jack died in 2006 in Heidelberg, Vic and he was buried in the Arthurs Creek Cemetery.
Main image: Willunga School by Kenneth Jack
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