Max Dingle Artist

About the Artist

Born in Maryborough, Queensland in 1945, my early life was spent in the small coastal town of Pialba on Hervey Bay. This town has now grown into the city of Hervey Bay.
When growing up I was divided between becoming a zoologist or an artist, in any event, not having achieved scholarships and no work in the local area, I joined the Royal Australian Navy as a Junior Recruit, at 15 on the verge of 16.
Twelve years later, on leaving the RAN, I cast aside my electronic qualifications and applied for and was accepted into the National Art School in Darlinghurst in Sydney. After graduating I discovered that it is difficult to pay a mortgage as an artist and had to start regular employment, which lead into working in Museums. 
Due to work and volunteer commitments and building my home on the South Coast of NSW, regular exhibitions of art had to go on hold. My creativity went partially into my work at museums, at home cooking and gardening as well as art works thrown in for good measure. I also studied sculpture at the Sculptor's Society and screen printing at Sydney Technical College.
At the end of my museum career, I am now back at the start, a full time artist and exhibiting. 
I also work as an independent curator, on a volunteer basis, for the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery , working on approximately one major exhibition each year, not always but usually with a connection to or from the M G Dingle & G B Hughes Collection ; the art works my partner Gavin Hughes and I collected over the forty years we were together. On 5 July 2008 the Shoalhaven City Council and Gavin and I signed a deed of agreement accepting our bequest of the Collection to the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery Collection.