adam william - for sale

Artist: Perye
Created: c. September 1973
Materials: Mixed (gouache, oil pastel, wax-resist) on art paper.
Specifications: Framed W300 × H350 × D20mm (Visible artwork W170 × H220mm)
Price: $125

Introduction to the art:

Titled Portrait of My Love and dated 9/73 on the reverse, this expressive work captures the emotional language of early-70s Australian abstraction. Using layers of gouache, wax-resist, and textured pastel; “Perye” creates a fluid, dreamlike composition where human forms slip in and out of view. Warm, skin-toned shapes rise through a deep blue ground, suggesting a figure remembered or felt rather than seen.

Works like this emerged from a period when many Australian painters were experimenting with symbolism, biomorphic forms, and psychological colour. Though the artist remains unidentified, the piece reflects a confident hand and an evocative sensibility, offering a striking glimpse into the aesthetics of the decade. Modest in size yet visually intense, it’s both a standalone artwork and a small fragment of 1970s modernist expression.

Artist: John Oswin
Created: c. 1988–94.
Materials: Watercolour on paper.
Specifications: Framed W350 × H290 × D20mm (Visible artwork W170 × H120mm)
Price: $50

Introduction to the art:

Painted by Melbourne artist John Oswin, this small watercolour captures a quiet rural moment at Gulf Station, Yarra Glen (a site long favoured by local plein-air painters). Oswin’s soft washes, gentle colour transitions, and careful handling of the solitary tree create a sense of calm and distance, framing the scene with a restrained, almost nostalgic touch.

Though modest in scale, the work reflects a distinctly Australian approach to late-20th-century landscape painting: observational, patient, and rooted in place. It’s a charming window into both the artist’s practice and the history of the Yarra Valley.

Artist: Unknown
Created: c. 1978–84.
Materials: Oil on canvas, heavy palette-knife impasto.
Specifications: Framed W305 × H255 × D25mm (Visible artwork W240 × H190mm)
Price: $80

Introduction to the art:

This palette-knife oil painting is a classic example of late-20th-century export art produced in Vietnamese workshop studios for the Australian art décor market. Painted in richly textured impasto, the scene depicts a lone figure walking through a lush European-style village street, framed by flowers, soft pastels, and atmospheric skies.

Though the artist is unknown, the work carries the unmistakable character of its era: fast, confident knife strokes, romanticised architecture, and a cinematic sense of movement. Compact in scale yet hugely striking, it captures old world charm and 1970s/80s decorative art history.

Artist: Sara
Created: October, 2004
Materials: Charcoals on craft paper.
Specifications: Framed W690 × H800 × D30mm (Artwork W450 × H550mm)
Price: $220

Introduction to the art:

Discovered in Melbourne’s western suburbs, this signed charcoal drawing, dated in the American style and marked with a Japanese-style monogram stamp, is both bold and quietly intimate. The piece depicts a woman seated, leaning forward as she ties up her hair. It captures a fleeting, private moment, ordinary yet evocative. There’s a calmness in her pose, but also a quiet sense of melancholy, as though she is preparing for something unseen.