Charles John Newcombe Callins was born in Hughenden, North Queensland, in 1887. His profession was given as a printer when he enlisted at Cairns during World War I and served in the 52nd Battalion A.I.F. He worked in the printing offices for many years, retiring from The Brisbane Telegraph in 1947. Sandra Warner stated that Callins largely recorded his tales until he was inspired to illustrate one of his own descriptions of a school teacher being rescued after falling from a ferry (1994, pg 16). It was then that he began to paint.
With the demise of representation and drawing as a major criteria for appreciation of a work of art in the 1950s and 60s the naïve paintings of Charles Callins and James Fardoulys, two of Queensland’s most significant primitive painters, began to be appreciated, especially by contemporary artists. It is no surprise to discover Charles Callins’s exhibiting career began in 1953 after Dr Gertrude Langer praised the work of the modern primitives in the exhibition of 'French Painting Today’ at the Queensland Art Gallery. She remarked:
'These untutored painters who combine the freshness of a childlike vision and feeling with a natural gift for design will win the hearts of people here as they have done in other lands’ (1953).
Gentle repose , his first exhibited work, was included in the second annual exhibition of Queensland Artists of Fame and Promise later the same year. Callins continued to submit his paintings to local prize competitions somewhat sporadically over more than two decades. His first solo exhibition was held at the Johnstone Gallery, Brisbane, in 1957 and his work was included in group exhibitions of works by like artists at Gallery A, Sydney, in 1967 and 1970; the White Studio Gallery, Adelaide, in 1968; and the Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne in 1971 and 1981. It was frequently mentioned in reviews of these exhibitions that, while some of the artists were not 'true’ naïve artists, this criticism was never directed at Callins.
Callins and James Fardoulys were the focus of an exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane. The memory of Callins’s early years in North Queensland inspired works such as the 1954 Great Barron Falls (from memory) and Yacht Cruise from Cairns to Green Island and Main Barrier Reefs ( 1966), but local scenes such as Moreton Bay (1977) were also produced. Roy Churcher remarked in the introduction to the exhibition at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane in 1976:
'..the naïve painter seems to come ready-made, after the first couple of attempts, a degree of technical surety is established and no further development takes place. They have, it seems, only two sure guides for their work: memory and fidelity to their vision. When these fail the work fails.’
- Writers:
- Cooke, Glenn R
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
