THE emotional pull of the Sharks was so strong, local artist Malcolm Hundley did 12 paintings of the East Fremantle Oval before it was bulldozed and redeveloped this year.
He’s been a fan of East Fremantle Football Club since childhood, when his family would gather around the wireless at their family farm in Manjimup and listen to commentary of games involving the Old Easts, as they were known back then.
• Painting The Town is a tribute to Fremantle by Malcolm Hundley.
“The team had some interesting characters such as Bob ‘Autumn Leaves’ Johnson. All the players names became familiar to us,” Hundley says.
After moving to Freo in the early 1970s, he attended just about every match with his dad until the mid-1980s, when woman, kids, work and other trivial matters got in the way.
“The old buildings at East Fremantle Oval have a resonance with me, and I know for many others, because they were the environment within which our spectating experience took place,” Hundley says.
“Their existence, now portrayed in my paintings, evokes memories of the drama and emotion that occurred there.
“Being a Sharks supporter became a part of my identity from my earliest years. It is part of who I am.”
Hundley started going to see the Sharks when he was a student in Fremantle in the 1970s, so perhaps the paintings are a nostalgic nod to his care-free youth.
“In 1976 four other students and I moved into a rented house in Russell Street for $50 (total) a week,” he recalls.
“$10 a week each for food and a bit extra for other bills and we were set. This was a time when a middy of beer at Clancy’s was 40c.”
He says back then Freo had the vibe of a big country town and was still a shopping destination, but at night it was moribund, apart from a handful of eateries and half-empty hotels.
“The only café on South Terrace was Papa Luigi’s where you could, if so inclined, get an espresso and read a recent copy of Il Globo,” he says.
Before hosting the America’s Cup in 1987, Freo had the reputation of a rough port city, but Hundley says he was mostly at house parties, Clancy’s or The Stoned Crow, and the only violence he saw was when a man smashed a stool over someone at His Majesty’s Hotel. Ahh, the memories.
Some 50 years later, Hundley is happily settled in East Freo and paints up to three times a week.
He’s worked in the picture framing industry for decades, picking up tips from other artists, and before taking up painting 10 years ago was an avid drawer.
“As long as I can remember I have always been interested in art. Frankly, I don’t know where that has come from – there is just a motivation to communicate through visual medium,” he says.
His latest exhibition Painting The Town has 33 paintings of Fremantle, North Fremantle and the port, including 12 of the old East Freo Oval, completed over the past two years. His colourful, upbeat work combines abstract impressionism with the odd geometric flourish, transforming the city into a kaleidoscope of shapes and colours.
“The port is a favourite topic,” he says. “There is always colour and movement. It is a dominant characteristic of the town both physically and in the perception of locals and visitors. Fremantle is a port town – at least for the time being. The scenes I depict are usually very familiar to the local viewer and, I hope, give cause to ponder the nature of our built environment. “
Hundley says the exhibition is the latest in a series documenting the urban landscape in Fremantle.
Painting The Town is at the Earlywork Gallery, 9/330 South Terrace, South Fremantle from September 12–22. To find out more see malcolmhundley.com.au.
by STEPHEN POLLOCK