John coburn artist biography
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John coburn artist biography
John Coburn (painter)
Australian artist
For other people named John Coburn, see John Coburn (disambiguation).
John CoburnAM (23 September 1925 – 7 November 2006) was an Australian abstract painter, teacher, tapestry designer and printmaker.[1]
Born in Ingham, Queensland, John Coburn moved from town to town with his mother and two younger sisters when his bank manager father went from branch to branch.
His father died when the boy was 10.[2]
While enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II, Coburn travelled around the Pacific and Indian oceans as a radio operator. He drew images from these places whilst aboard HMAS Nepal, including Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea and others.[3]
Coburn studied art at East Sydney Technical College in 1947.
He finished his four-year training dissatisfied:[2]
I'd learned to paint portraits and landscapes and to draw from the human figure ... but at the end I said 'So what; what's it good fo