Leonard and Kathleen Shillam: involvement with the Society of Sculptors, Queensland (SOSQ) and the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society (QWAS)
[The Shillams’] influence through the SOSQ has been immeasurable. Sculpturally their name is synonymous with creativity, technical knowledge, teaching skills, sculptural expertise and just downright good sense and encouragement. They have both always allowed themselves to be totally approachable for free sculptural advice no matter how small or large the problem...
The SOSQ has been Kathleen and Leonard Shillam’s gigantic cultural gift to Queensland.
(Hartnett, D 1996, Forms entwined : the life story of sculptors Leonard & Kathleen Shillam, Pangeza Studio, Brisbane, Qld, p.148.)
Len and Kath Shillam’s devotion to sculpture naturally led them to share their expertise. Perhaps mindful of the artistic and professional isolation in which they worked when they returned to Brisbane in the late 1930s, they became initiating members of the Society of Sculptors, Queensland in 1969. This organisation had emerged out of informal meetings of Brisbane-based sculptors. They decided to hold an outdoor sculpture exhibition and when the Brisbane City Council stipulated that it could only deal with a society with an official constitution, they created one.
Together Len and Kath wrote the constitution, largely drawn from their experience in the Society of Sculptors and Associates in New South Wales for which they had been foundation members in 1951. The aims of the Society of Sculptors, Queensland included becoming a point of contact for sculptors, and organising workshops and exhibitions.
This organisation set out to provide membership to any sculptor, no matter how inexperienced, and through its auspices the Shillams were able to work with similarly passionate albeit less experienced practitioners and to provide others with the benefit of their expertise. Exhibitions were held regularly. These included one in 1971 at the Johnstone Gallery, a prestigious venue offered to the society as a direct result of Len and Kath’s connections.
The importance of the Society of Sculptors, Queensland as a support network and venue for nurturing new talent has been significant. During his tenure at the Queensland College of Art (1974-80), Len encouraged advanced students to attend the meetings of the Society to further their interests and abilities.
Successful sculptor Rhyl Hinwood described her experience with the Shillams and the Society of Sculptors, Queensland thus:
For years I had been keen to further my study of sculpture but had worked alone … In 1967, I enrolled in the Queensland Arts Council Summer School held at the University of Queensland … The tutors were Leonard and Kathleen Shillam. The Shillams subsequently invited me to attend the meetings of the newly formed Society of Sculptors Queensland. I always admired their gentle, generous and always fair attitude to everyone. They quietly calmed many a fiery meeting and had good common sense resolutions to the many problems that beset a new association.
In 1986, Leonard Shillam was my referee for the Churchill Fellowship which I subsequently received. Throughout the years, Leonard and Kathleen Shillam have nurtured the SOSQ, and through it, so many of us who have made sculpture our profession. They have my admiration and love.
(Hartnett, D 1996, Forms entwined : the life story of sculptors Leonard & Kathleen Shillam, Pangeza Studio, Brisbane, Qld, p.148.)
The Shillams’ interest in continuing to develop new dimensions to their work even relatively late in their careers is evidenced by their joining the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society in 1983. In the catalogue for the Society exhibition in 1992, Kath wrote, “We joined the newly formed QWAS in 1983 and this has directed more of my attention toward our elusive Australian fauna. I’ve always loved the big animals, exotic and domestic but the immense variety of shape found in Australian native birds, animals and reptiles is a newer discovery.” Bandicoots, native birds, frogs, bilbys, kangaroos and koalas joined the cats, horses, turtles, bulls, boars, chickens, dogs and other introduced animals that the Shillams had always included in their repertoire.
Their environmental awareness was already high, and in 1985 Len created an empathetic work during the Society of Sculptors, Queensland, symposium about the destruction of wetlands. Avicennia marina agonistes (grey mangrove in agony) was carved from Helidon sandstone in the Brisbane city botanical gardens. The mangrove shoot is like fingers, knuckles protruding.
Len and Kath lived on the water in bayside Brisbane for the majority of their lives, and their awareness of the qualities and importance of the native fauna and flora was high. In many ways the Queensland Wildlife Artists Society fused their environmental and artistic interests.
Browse pictures from the Leonard and Kathleen Shillam Papers.
Last updated: 24th June 2011
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