Alan Tucker writes . . .
I was born in Adelaide in the summer of 1952. My father rode his pushbike to the hospital on the day I was born and lost his pay packet. Will he ever let me forget?
I lived in Adelaide until I was 24 and studied at three state schools and Flinders University. Art was not part of my education at home or at school. It spontaneously generated when I was in my early twenties, about the time I moved to the first of three country towns. I have lived in the country ever since.
My childhood home had very few books, but lots of talk about football, racing, tennis and cricket. My love of reading evolved when I finished study and for the first time could read for pleasure. My interest in writing and painting developed while I was on a working holiday in New Zealand.
For the next twenty years I painted and wrote regularly in the back shed. I did not dream of exhibiting or publishing but simply enjoyed my hobbies and slowly developed a personal artistic style in which words, narrative and images combine.
During my first exhibition of paintings in 1993 I was approached by Omnibus Books and asked if I would like to adapt my work for publication in a book. I said ‘yes’ and have been working on research, writing and illustrating (as well as teaching part-time at a secondary school) since then.
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