Clive Murray-White – Sculptor
It says a lot about Clive Murray-White that he exhibited his exquisite marble sculptures at the Australian National Gallery in Canberra and the Boisdale Memorial Hall in successive years. While his work is represented in Australia's leading public galleries and he has had more than 30 exhibitions in leading commercial galleries, his artworks can also be found throughout Gippsland, east of Melbourne, a region to which he is devoted.
'I live in this beautiful place, Cowwarr,' he says. 'I didn't choose Cowwarr; it chose me. My partner is the world's best arts administrator and she runs the Cowwarr Arts Space. If you've got a building as wonderful as ours, you have to share it with people. Plus we have great coffee and that gets people in.'
Clive's studio is open to the public whenever he is working. He believes that interaction with the audience is a crucial part of the creative process, and other people often see that a work is finished before he does. When it comes time to down tools he revels in the trappings of a Gippsland lifestyle: fishing, four-wheel-driving, enjoying the clean air and devouring local produce. It's hard to imagine a better balance.
Art space
'Cowwarr Art Space where I live and work is built in an old butter factory, the only industrial Arts-and-Crafts style building on the Victorian Heritage Register. It was finished in 1918 and is not unlike Walter Burley-Griffin's architectural work. It was built to be uplifting for the workers. This was a core idea in Arts-and-Crafts: if you give workers beautiful spaces to work in, they will work better.'
Cheese and wine
'Jindi soft cheese has been voted the best soft cheese in the world three times and it is. Absolutely. Their brie is quite superb, my favourite by a long way. The best place to get Gippsland cheese (and a lot of other things) is at Gippsland Food and Wine in Yarragon. Gippsland has a lot of good wineries, but for mine the top of the range is Narkojee Wines near Glengarry. Both the cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay are monsters; very, very good wine. The winery has a cellar door and a small gallery.'
Galleries
'Our regional galleries are bloody good. Gippsland Art Gallery and the Latrobe Regional Gallery are top galleries. They both have a beautiful selection of art, and both have nice cafés. The Sale gallery is a little smaller but well-run and friendly I think it is very important that galleries are friendly places. The café there is called Relish and you can sit beside the picture window and look straight out onto the Port of Sale, enjoy a coffee and watch the boats and pelicans and things.'
Off-roading, picnicking or camping
'My favourite 4x4 trip is from the top of the Thomson Dam going north towards Matlock and Woods Point. You go past these beautiful trees, with a view of the Thomson River down below. In my opinion, any excuse to drive through the dirt roads of the Great Divide is a good enough excuse. It is always a fabulous experience. The road from Cowwarr to Walhalla has two beautiful picnic spots, Brunton's Bridge and Cooper's Creek. Anywhere else in the world a park ranger would take your money, but these are free. You can camp at these places, but they are very busy on weekends and public holidays, so pick the times when you can get there by yourself.'
