Text Box: RON MULLER Text Box: Ron is a well known professional water colour artist and popular teacher. He has a broad background which includes engineering, theology and psychology with most of his working career in the field of personal management. He travels widely conducting workshops in Victoria and interstate and regularly visits Tuscany where he will take small groups on painting tours. Ron is a regular tutor at the Doncaster Templestowe Art Society. His approach is to use composition, tone and colour not simply to present convincing form but to create a little ‘visible poetry’ that appeals to the imagination and the emotions. Therefore, Ron is drawn to the light, atmosphere and beauty of the natural environment for many of his subjects. The tonal subtlety, soft horizons and limited colours of early morning and late afternoon light are a constant source of fascination. Whether the subject is landscape, seascape, marine subjects or buildings, the interpretation of light can transform an otherwise banal realist painting to an artistic interpretation which remains an enduring source of inspiration and wonder. Not surprisingly, Ron finds inspiration in the music, poetry and art largely in the so-called Romantic tradition. The 19th century poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “When earth is crammed with heaven And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes, The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” One of the satisfactions in art is to hope that as a result, more people see “the burning bush” as it were and take off their shoes rather than just regarding the environment as a source of exploitation. The February 1995 issue of the ‘Australian Artist’ featured a cover article on Ron’s work entitled, ‘A Romantic view of Water Colour’. He has won numerous awards including the Norwich Award, Camberwell Rotary on three occasions, was selected as one of the Australian Water Colour artists in the Chinese-Australia Cultural exchange exhibitions, and has had many successful exhibitions. His work is exhibited at the Kew Gallery, Stonecrop Fine Arts Gallery, Hillcrest Gallery, Hampton and others in Melbourne. Together with the Quay Gallery and Bandamora Galleries in NSW and the David Sumner Gallery in South Australia. Ron is a member of the Victorian Artists Society and the Victorian Watercolour Society.