Queensland artist making waves in racing

Terry Gillam is 53 years old, a plumber from Mudjimba on the Sunshine Coast. He’s married with two kids, owns a home and pays a mortgage and, by all accounts, is a likeable, ordinary bloke.

Until recently, he was a plumber and unknown to the world of horse racing, but now he’s popping up on walls around the industry.

Gillam is an artist, and his impasto-style paintings, with their thick, rich strokes, have portraited horses like Phobetor (Dream Ahead {USA}), Artorius (Flying Artie), Pierro and Subzero (Kala Dancer {GB}).

"I've never had an art lesson,” Gillam said. “My youngest daughter was very talented, and she always had brushes and canvases lying around, and I just started pottering about with them in the plumbing shed, as it was then. I had no particular subject in mind, even though I actually started with painting politicians.”

Gillam’s portraits include Bob Hawke and Wayne Bennett but, as his experience grew, he began painting racing. He has portraits of T J Smith, Bart Cummings, Mitchell Beer and Peter V’Landys, while his individual horse portraits have exploded his profile across racing.

Julian Blaxland has one of Gillam’s paintings of Artorius, Will Freedman another of Subzero, and Mitchell Beer received one of Sunrise Ruby (Casino Prince) as the mare heads to town for the Kosciuszko next month.

Gillam has a current commission to paint Ricky McLeish, the consistent trackwork rider of Manikato (Manihi), and another for Cox Plate hero Sir Dragonet (Ire) (Camelot {GB}).

For paint’s sake

Gillam is one of those guys whose interest in racing was a little more than passing. His grandfather was Harry Gillam, who trained horses here and there on the Darling Downs, and the Gillam upbringing centred around the radio broadcasting the Saturday races through the kitchen.

Gillam has had a few racehorses through his life, so the industry, in some form, has been a common thread.

Until last year however, he had plied his trade as a Sunshine Coast plumber. In business for himself with its hard yards and early mornings, he would slide home as early as possible to uptake brushes and paint.

Gallery: Selection of works by Gillam

“I’d had no burning ambition in my life to be a plumber, or an artist for that matter,” he said. “It just evolved.”

Very early this year, Gillam was diagnosed with breast cancer, which is rare enough in men but not unheard of. At the end of January, he had a full mastectomy with complete removal of the lymph nodes, and he’s been surviving chemotherapy ever since.

“As I got closer to being ill, I really resented the fact that I was governed by this small business that we ran,” he said. “I would find any excuse to avoid doing it. I would leave the house at 4.30 in the morning to be home by a reasonable hour so I could start painting, and I wasn’t painting for anyone or selling myself. I was just painting for the absolute enjoyment that it gave me.”

In a way, Gillam’s cancer diagnosis hit the reset button. He’d attended a self-development seminar with his wife, Paula, which had explained that 82 per cent of people wake up in the morning and trudge to jobs they don’t like, and he didn’t want to be one of those people.

“They asked me at the seminar why I wasn’t painting for a living if it was my passion, and I said I was plumber, that I had bills and a mortgage and employees,” Gillam said. “In a roundabout sort of way then, getting cancer was the best thing that ever happened to us because it allowed us to sit down as a family and make a decision.”

Gillam’s immunity was compromised by his cancer, so the plumbing business was sold and the shed converted to a studio. His chemo will continue until February next year and, in the meanwhile, he’s chipping away at making his name in art.

“If I can get to the stage where I can be known to the industry in offering something different and unique, that’s what I want,” he said.

Statement-making art

Gillam’s paintings, especially his racehorse portraits, are largely in the impasto style, where heavy amounts of paint are used on the canvas to form thick layers.

He has used this style across most of his thoroughbred portraits, and the result is a burst of rich, textured colour, a little bit abstract and always striking. The paintings hop off white walls and, in an industry that has always embraced art, Gillam’s work is something different.

Traditionally, thoroughbred portraits have been made famous by the likes of artists George Stubbs and John Frederick Herring. While in Australia, artist Alister Simpson was the commissioned artist for the Sydney racing clubs, painting the Derby and Slipper winners as part of the owners’ prize.

Gallery: Selection of works by Gillam

Paintings by these artists have always been elegant, timeless and realistic, while Gillam’s approach is loud in colour and splashy, appealing to an appetite for statement-making art.

“At the moment, I’ve got a framed reproduction of a horse called Xanthus for an owner, and that guy said he had a garage full of racing photos that he wasn’t allowed to put up in the house, but he was looking forward to putting up this painting of his horse,” Gillam said. “And I know myself, I haven’t got any of my horses’ photos up at home, but a painting is a different thing, isn’t it?”

The Queensland artist has recently tackled such subjects as Annabel Neasham, Damian Lane and Bruce McAvaney, but his favourite to date has been his portrait of Subzero.

“There’s such an emotional memory of that horse through the racing community, so I painted him without a commission,” Gillam said. “But I enjoy every subject that I paint. Put it this way, I always walk out of the studio happy with what I’ve done.”