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Born at Ryde, NSW on 27 January 1939 into a working class background Ted (Edward) John May attended local State Schools before commencing National Service Training and enrolling as a part time student at East Sydney Technical College. While attending evening classes, conducted by Wallace Thornton, John Passmore and Godfrey Millar, he worked in numerous day jobs, until graduating with a Diploma of Fine Art in 1963.
After graduating he taught at Sydney High Schools and then went on to lecture part time at East Sydney Tech and the Newcastle Art School. In 1972 he travelled extensively throughout South, Central and Northern America, working 6 months in Mexico and a further 18 months in the USA.
In late 1974 he returned to Australia and secured lecturing positions at RMIT, the VCA and Monash University Caulfield Campus Art School in Melbourne. He became a partner in a real estate company and later instigated and directed the Melbourne Arts Club Inc. He retired from lecturing to paint full time in 1991.
Additional travel to the UK and Europe advanced his knowledge and, together with Cubism, Picasso, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, influenced his early work.
Best known among his peers as a fine draughtsman, a reputation acquired by knowledge of the human figure's mechanisms gained from Passmore and Millar, he has continuously kept up the practice while conducting life drawing classes at his studio.
He developed an individual style of landscape painting, using twigs, falling bark, tree trunks, saplings and the scattered undergrowth to portray the swamps, marshes and the devastation of the burnt out forests of the Australian bush. These expressionistic, robustly painted and colourful works were executed primarily with the pallet knife on a large format.
The reoccurrence of his interest in the human figure in 2000 changed his direction away from the landscape back towards the human figurative elements. These compositional, structured paintings were made up of body parts posed in awkward positions, sometimes upside down, sometimes distorted and fragmented and, as singular imaged works, they are a stark contrast to the earlier landscapes where the vegetation filled the canvas.
A lighter side to Ted May can be seen when he turns his attention to Portraits, which are usually executed without the subject sitting. This allows him to instinctively follow his inner feelings and his knowledge of the subject. This style of portrait painting has also led to a series of tongue in cheek portraits of William Shakespeare in which humour plays an important role in the execution of the works.
Further development occurred in 2006 after he was approached to do a series of drawings for a documentary, based on the failed attempt by the South Australian Government in 1860 to establish the northern town of Palmerston in, what is now known as, the Northern Territory. Inspired by the story, Ted executed large scale images of "The Forlorn Hope", the lifeboat in which seven settlers made a desperate journey from Escape Cliffs on the Timor Sea, to Champion Bay near Geraldton in Western Australia. This body of work changed the manner in which he worked, producing 86 large scale images executed in charcoal on canvas and linen.
Ted has held more than 28 solo exhibitions with major shows held at the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, Benalla Regional Art Gallery, John Paynter Gallery - Newcastle, the 2006 World Shakespeare Congress - Brisbane, the Institute of Modern Art - Brisbane, Solander Gallery - Canberra, Kim Bonython, Robin Gibson and Rudy Koman Galleries - Sydney, Niagara Gallery - Melbourne, BMG 2nd Contemporary Art Fair 1990 and Barberino val D'Elsa - Florence, Italy.
In addition he has participated in over 46 Group Exhibitions which include the 2009 Sulman and Gallipoli Art Prizes, the 2008 JADA and Robert Jacks Drawing Prizes, the 2006 ANL Line Maritime Prize, in which he was awarded 1st prize, the 2006 Moran Portrait Prize, the 2002 Dobell Art Prize, the 1997 Sulman Art Prize, 1996 Wynne Art Prize, Inter Art Gallery - Reich, Cologne, Helena Rubenstein Prize 1969 and the Bradford Cotton Mills Prize 1966/67
Works have been acquired by The National Gallery of Victoria, Ballarat Art Gallery, Heide Museum of Modern Art, The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust -Statford upon Avon, Australian Embassy - Saudi Arabia, Conrad Jupiter Casino, the Chartwell Collection - Hamilton, New Zealand, University of Melbourne, Peter MacCallum Institute, BHP, La Trobe University, Paul Dainty Corporation and the Western Australia Institute of Technology.
While early works and some landscapes have been executed as either Edward May, or back to front as Yambet or Yamdet, current paintings and drawings are signed "Ted May".
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