17 Facts About Guy Grey-Smith

Guy Grey-Smith was an Australian painter, printmaker and ceramicist.

Guy Grey-Smith, the second son of Francis Edward Grey-Smith, station manager, and his wife Ada Janet was born in Wagin, Western Australia in 1916.

Guy Grey-Smith joined the Royal Australian Air Force when he was 20 and trained as a pilot.

Guy Grey-Smith married an Englishwoman, Helen Dorothy Stanes, at Godmanchester on 19 October 1939.

Guy Grey-Smith's aircraft was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and caught fire.

Guy Grey-Smith was captured and kept at Stalag Luft III as a prisoner of war.

Guy Grey-Smith contracted tuberculosis and, as a consequence, was repatriated to the UK in 1944 for treatment, which included art therapy.

Guy Grey-Smith attended the school until 1947, learning from Ceri Richards, Robert Medley and Henry Moore.

Guy Grey-Smith studied fresco painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under Louis le Brocquy until 1954.

In 1966, Guy Grey-Smith became inaugural president of the Contemporary Art Society.

Guy Grey-Smith died at the age of 65 from a recurrence of tuberculosis, in August 1981.

Guy Grey-Smith formed the Perth Group in the late 1950s with fellow artists Robert Juniper Brian McKay, Tom Gibbons and Maurice Stubbs.

Guy Grey-Smith was influenced by Cezanne, English constructionist painters, Nicolas de Stael and the Western Australian landscape.

Guy Grey-Smith travelled throughout the state, including the Kimberley, Pilbara, Goldfields and South West regions, drawing and making notes in order to produce larger works back in his studio.

Guy Grey-Smith won the Perth Prize for best Western Australian entry in 1955 and 1963, and the Perth Prize in 1964.

Guy Grey-Smith received the St George's Cathedral Prize in 1966 and 1967, and the Walter Murdoch Prize in 1967 and 1968.

Guy Grey-Smith was honoured with a Special Distinguished Artist and Scholar Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 1973 and an Order of Australia in 1981.