Upcoming & Recent books from The Beagle Press
The Beagle Press was established in 1980 by Lou Klepac, to publish books on Australian art and has published and produced over 100 fine art books to date. The Beagle Press has produced books for many public institutions including the Art Gallery of New South Wales; Powerhouse Museum; National Library of Australia; and many leading artists. A high standard of quality and production is a hallmark of all Beagle Press books.
Julien Playoust Investigating Landscape
Published 2025 | Hardcover | 144 pages | 250 x 330 mm
ISBN 9780947349752 | RRP $70.00
Following his survey exhibition at the Grace Cossington Smith Gallery, this book features the dynamic works produced between 2019 and 2024, which have been inspired by his long association with the landscape of Central West Region of NSW on the Belubula River. The book has an introduction by Steve Lopes with a preface and commentaries by the artist.
COMING SOON
Pamela Griffiths : Etchings 1995–2014
by Lou Klepac
Pamela Griffith b.1943 belongs to an artistic family; her grandmother was a painter, her mother was a potter, and her brother is an artist. She is a painter, a printmaker, a teacher and an author of two books.
With a scholarship for studying art education, she attended the East Sydney Technical College. There she became interested in etching, but as this was no longer taught at the art school, she taught herself to etch from a book and then adapted a washing mangle to print her first etchings. Eventually she had a press made in Australia which was later further developed with the help of her engineer husband Ross. In 1976 she set up the Griffith Studio and Graphic Workshop with facilities and technical expertise to promote etching, making the studio available to artists who were interested in printmaking. Many now well-known artists came to work in her studio which became a hub for the new wave of printmaking in the 1960s and 70s. Griffith has been fascinated by the natural world and established an intimate knowledge of the Australian fauna, flora and landscape by travelling across Australia in a caravan or camping in a tent. These experiences became an important component of her subject matter.
Though she has always been active as a painter, etching was a passion and for five decades Griffith produced over 400 editions. She has had more than 150 solo exhibitions, and her work is represented in public, corporate and private collections in Australia and overseas. Her important portrait commissions include subjects such as Sir William Deane, Dame Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge. Other commissions include commemorative toiles; two for the Bicentenary celebration and a similar one dedicated for the beatification of Mary Mackillop. Pamela Griffith FRSN BArtEd, has played an important role in art education in NSW; in 2022 she was awarded an OAM for services to art.
Hardcover | 204 pages | 290 x 280 mm
COMING SOON
Poetic Experiments: the shape of allegory
“I am aware, as I look back over the years of my art making, that I have been a constant experimenter. In a way, my curiosity to discover has led to an empirical and ontological approach. This makes me think of an amusing story.
It may be apocryphal, but nevertheless, it fits well with what I want to say about mediums and experiments. I have almost given up reading daily newspapers. However, I think this story probably comes from reading The Age. The Melbourne newspaper, The Age, was my most regular morning fix with coffee. I read that apparently early American astronauts were having difficulty using ballpoint pens at zero gravity. The Russians, were quick when confronted with the same problem. They designed the Russian Space Pen. It worked at zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface and at extreme temperatures. What they had in fact done was come up with a well-designed pencil! This made me wonder about how I would go about making a watercolour at zero gravity. It's not likely that this would ever happen. However, it shows my thinking involves experimental creativeness that is poetic.
The poetry of art making can advocate powerful emotions in creating unique aesthetic experiments with added spiritual resonance. ‘I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination,’ said Albert Einstein. The excitement of achieving results from this experimental creativeness can be most personally satisfying. Alberto Giacometti thought that: ‘The object of art is not to reproduce reality but create a reality of the same intensity’. Experimenting with various mediums is the fun part in the ‘play’ of making art. With imagination and on any surface, one can arrive at surprising and exciting results using a variety of colours and forms. The mystery and love of discovery is not always about certainty. Freedom is the soul of art. Art is the flow of potential using the human mind and hand. The imagination is an intermediary between emotion and intellect. It also provides the basis of a social life.”
Bruno Leti
Hardcover | 156 pages | 220 x 185 mm
OUT NOW
Greg Hansell The Purity of Australian Light
Greg Hansell is a landscape painter known for his exclusive devotion to pastels, some of which he makes himself. He is best known for his corrugated iron subject matter which features frequently in his work. He has been hung in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Wynne Prize numerous times and is twice winner of the Mosman Art Prize. This book covers Hansell’s work from 1982 to the present day. It has an introduction by Lou Klepac who selected the works, an essay by Carol Roberts, and recollections and notes by the artist.