Frank Waldo (Wal) Potts was born at Sandgate, 1888, the youngest child of the three daughters and three sons born to William Potts and Selma née Hartenstein. His father was a tailor with premises in Queen Street whose clients included the Queensland’s Governors. He attended the Normal School, Anne Street and later became a student of Richard Godfrey Rivers at the Brisbane Technical College. Potts exhibited original oils and copies at the Queensland National Agricultural and Industrial Association from 1906 to 1907 and worked for a time in a hardware store. Potts served in the AIF during World War I (1916-19) where he met David McHaffie at the Enoggera Army Barracks in Brisbane who became a lifelong friend. When the war ended they settled on a fruit farm at Flaxton on the Blackall Range. Potts, like Kenneth Macqueen , painted after his work on the farm had been completed and during the years from 1926 to 1966 exhibited more than 170 landscape and still lifes (mainly watercolours) at the Royal Queensland Art Society annual exhibitions.
When he retired to Woody Point, subjects on the Redcliffe Peninsular became dominant and he exhibited extensively in the Redcliffe Art Contest from 1957 to 1966. He was also a member of the Brisbane Art Group from 1948 to 1953 and was included in the 1951 'Exhibition of Queensland Art’ at the then Queensland National Art Gallery. Potts held solo exhibitions at Finney’s Art Gallery, c.1953-54, Don McInnes Gallery, Brisbane, September 1968 and two (one of which was in 1957) at Allan & Stark’s Gallery, Queen Street.
He produced attractive oil paintings but was largely noted for the quality of his watercolours. Indeed, Dr Duhig, a noted art patron in Brisbane during the first half of the 20th century, commented about Pott’s watercolour, Valley of the Maroochy , when he presented it to the Queensland National Art Gallery Collection, '... I believe that this is a particularly fine piece of work and I doubt whether a better water-colour painting of a landscape has even been done in Queensland.’ (1) This is no doubt a fine work but the claim may be a little excessive as Kenneth Macqueen was producing his stylish watercolours of the Darling Downs by then. Watercolour was a particular strength in Queensland art practice at this time and Potts contributed significantly both in his floral still lifes and landscapes. His landscapes of the hilly countryside where he lived (such as The Obi from Mapleton Range also on the QAG Collection) can have a peculiar vertiginous quality about then. He died at Chermside, Brisbane on 27 July 1970.
1. Letter from Dr. J. V. Duhig, 30 Oct. 1939.
- Writers:
- Cooke, Glenn R.
- Date written:
- 2006
- Last updated:
- 2011
