John Grainger was a painter and sign writer who was a working member of the West Australian Society of Arts. He was born in Victoria, the sixth of eight children of William A. Goss, a baker, and his wife Mary n_e Cole. He attended Fitzroy Artisans School of Design 1884-1885 and was apprenticed as a sign and ticket writer while going to art classes at night school in Melbourne. He became a sign writer by trade and a painter for pleasure. His fort_ was large calico banners and he did many for the Federation celebrations of 1901 and the royal visit to Perth of that year. His wife was the seamstress on these projects.
Grainger was also musical and played the flute and mandolin. He moved to Western Australia in 1895 with two of his brothers. His brother James was a wire-worker and they set up a joint shop where James sold lampshades, garden screens and arches, flower baskets, cages and other such items.
Grainger married Florence Edith Speed in 1900. In 1909 they took up a selection at Tampbellup but left the farm for ten years in 1912. He returned to sign writing, painting gold leaf on many shops in Perth and when films came to Western Australia he painted the advertising signage. He also painted some of the backdrops for stage plays. He spent 1915-18 in Kalgoorlie where he taught art at night at the Technical School. When he and Florence returned to Perth they had a boarding house and Goss worked for Meston in the summer and spent winter on the farm until his eldest son was old enough to manage it.
He enjoyed painting and mixed his own colours, grinding the oxides. He exhibited a painting Mt Eliza from Royal Park Hill with the West Australian Society of Arts in 1913. The reviewer in 1920 wrote, “Mr W. Goss is a large contributor. His feeling for atmosphere and sense of distance are the strongest features of his work.” These were some eleven scenes all painted in the vicinity of Perth. In 1922 there were a further five oils for sale ranging from two guineas to ten guineas. In 1927 he exhibited oil paintings of “A Country Garden”, “A Tambellup Farm”, “By the River” and “Pioneering”. His oil “The Pool exhibited in 1929 was priced at 20 guineas. George Benson in 1931 wrote, “Mr Goss has a technique that is unusual but effective, and he has several interesting landscapes, including a typical bush scene.”
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
