Jeffrey Thomas Makin

Place: Wagga Wagga

Born: 1943

Biography:

Jeffrey Thomas Makin (born 1943) is an Australian artist, art critic, and director of Port Jackson Press Australia. He is best known for his paintings en plein air of the Australian landscape. Makin was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. Son to father Frederick Campbell Makin and mother Mary Makin (née Lanyon), Makin’s affiliation with art and painting began at an early age. Makin was given a set of pastels from his grandmother and was told they had belonged to a family relative supposedly descended from the renowned English portrait painter, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Through the encouragement of his father and his art teacher at Cowra High School, Makin began taking private lessons in 1961 from Desiderius Orban (who would also tutor Makin’s friend and associate John Olsen) of the Julian Ashton School of Art in Sydney. From 1962 to 1966 Makin completed a Diploma in Painting at the National Art School in Sydney where he also received an Art Progression Student Scholarship. Later in life, Makin would go on to complete a Masters by Research at Deakin University in Geelong, compiling a thesis entitled, ‘Meaning, Significance, and the Sublime in the Depiction of the Australian landscape’. After graduating in 1966, Makin held his first exhibition at the Watters Gallery, and began to be awarded art prizes. Makin is best known for his paintings en plein air of the Australian landscape.