Artist Jim Thalassoudis started out painting with a white lie.
To convince his parents that this was a good career path, he sugar coated the job.
“Since my parents didn’t know anything about this sort of stuff, I lied – I said there was a good income in art,” he tells Neos Kosmos with a laugh.
What a good idea that was. That freedom to immerse himself in fine arts has given him a reputable name in the Australian art world, and his popularity is growing overseas.
His art isn’t pretentious, it isn’t trying to be didactic, and above all, his work is beautiful.
The 51-year-old is one of the most prolific artists I’ve ever met, with his 41st solo show opening to the public last week.
Front and centre of his new exhibition, the first since recovering from severe illness, is the Melbourne icon of the Skipping Girl neon sign in Richmond.
Despite being from Adelaide, the artist has always had a bit of a love affair with Melbourne.
“Melbourne is my second home – I often feel like I’m a Melbourne artist that accidentally lives in Adelaide,” he says.
The artistic mecca in Australia hasn’t always been very forgiving for the artist. Every time he’d make the trip, he’d be greeted with grey, gloomy skies, and some unforeseen obstacles.
Being struck by the neon skipping girl on his various trips to Melbourne, he decided to tackle the project.
“Last time I went out to get an image of it to paint it, it was not working,” he says, something that many Melburnians are very familiar with.
“I made some enquiries, I found out who the owners were, I rang and arranged to get access to the roof.”
In between that time, the sign was restored to working condition, and Jim was able to see the sign up close in all its glory.
Climbing up decades old scaffolding and sitting himself on a rickety old roof, he got exclusive access to the sign and was able to see the intricacies of the Melbourne landmark up close.
“[My work is] very faithful to it. All the structural wiring is all there,” he says.
“I had to paint it in a way that I had to use what it looks like at night and slightly hint at what it looks like at daytime.”
The painting itself is so realistic that the Charles Nodrum Gallery was getting calls from a Richmond apartment complex that had copyrighted a Skipping Girl photograph, wanting to sue. They were stopped in their tracks when the gallery confirmed it was indeed a painting.
Jim Thalassoudis is known for his use of colour, and his sunsets are becoming a signature.
“For some reason it’s always captured me,” he says.
“I like it as a metaphor for freedom, entrapment or time passing.”
For the first time, Jim has dabbled in monochrome, and in the new exhibition you’ll find strong, colourful sunsets juxtaposed with beautiful grey, fluffy clouds.
Maybe the grey skies of Melbourne have warmed to him.
“People think, oh, these are black and white paintings,” he says of his new collection.
“But in fact they’re not black and white; it’s a mixture of colours including black, browns, yellows to create a warm grey.”
The black and white skies are actually daytime clouds, something Jim hasn’t tackled before.
He is quick to tell you that his inspiration comes from the beauty above us, something people rarely crane their necks to see. He says people often tell him nostalgic stories of a time they saw a beautiful sunset, either on a road trip or on a holiday, after seeing his paintings.
Also new to the collection and a new venture by Jim are his sculptures, inspired by the leftover paint from his paintings.
These sculptures, fittingly called ‘falling clouds’, are made up of dried leftover oil paint that Jim slowly layers to make unique shapes.
Looking at the statues, you can easily see where some of the colours come from, with the original paintings displayed right around them.
Yet, despite so much creativity, Jim hasn’t had the best luck in recent years.
About a year ago, Jim was given a 1 per cent chance to live by his doctors.
Removing tumours and undergoing harsh operations left him clinging to life, but he pulled through.
It’s given him a new perspective on what he wants to achieve and show in his artwork.
“In between operations I had a lot of time to sit around and think about things, and that’s why all this new work has come out,” he says.
He is also keen to start up his international exhibitions again.
“I’ve shown in New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, but all of that slipped away and it was impossible to keep it up when I was getting ill.”
Jim will be showing his work in San Francisco later this year in a new venture and hopes to pick up where he left off.
Already his artwork has been exhibited in almost every major gallery in Australia, and has seen countless hotels and businesses scurry to buy his work.
Jim Thalassoudis’ featured exhibition is on until October 19 at Charles Nodrum Gallery, 267 Church Street, Richmond, VIC.