How these pages originated
Having travelled down the peninsula many times when we had a crib/bach at Harwood township, I'd seen many examples of John's work on the various bus shelters in that area. The thought crossed my mind that while I'd taken the odd photograph of these art works there might actually be a web site with his whole collection on it.In 2001 I contacted John and the conversation went something like this.....
"Do you have a web site with all your bus stop art"?
John - "I don't even have a computer! I use my brother-in-law's!"
Alan - "I've taken quite a few photos of your bus stop art and thought about putting them on my own web site - just thought I'd better check with you first - it won't cost you anything!"
John - "That sounds like a great idea".
Alan - "Do you have photos of all your bus stop graphics?"
John - "Sure, I always take a heap of them when I complete each one".
Alan - "How about we get together and sort out something then?"
John - "Great idea, I can bring all my photos over".
I didn't realise at that stage just how many bus shelters had benefited from John's brush work!!!! There are 120 scanned photographs on the site and there were actually more than that. John wanted to do his own graphics for the page - the bird, the painter and the matching heading. I created the animations for John from the artwork he had provided in A4 size. I also managed to get him to provide a bit of text for each photograph.
I should probably add that while John would arrange to call "for a few minutes", to discuss web layout and such, inevitably he would stay for several hours with what seemed to be a never ending source of tales and information. Noises from the kitchen signaling our evening meal being prepared was usually a sharp reminder that many hours had passed already and he'd be "off home".
These pages are now a tribute to John so others can enjoy his work.
Alan Gilchrist
