Guy Warren: Right. Well, my name is Guy Warren. I'm sitting in an art gallery in the city of Cuenca about eight thousand three hundred feet high in the mountains of Ecuador. Surrounding me in this gallery are the paintings of Charles Reddington. I've, I've always thought of Charles Reddington was an Australian painter, but maybe that's too simplistic.
Guy Warren: Charles has studied, taught, worked, and lived in several countries. Where did you begin, Charles? Where were you born? Where did you study?
Charles Reddington: I was born in Chicago. And it was very convenient for me to actually go to the Chicago Art Institute, which had a very successful and professional school in art in Chicago. One of the features about the...going to there was, we could actually go up into the galleries and see what, uh, was happening. I mean, it was always there.
Charles Reddington: And there were many, many shows that came through there, which allowed the students to go up there before 12 o'clock. Been doing it all the time. And it was really...it was the...that was the, the education that I think I received visually, to see the real thing.
Guy Warren: That, that's great. Thanks, Charles. That's exactly the sort of question I was going to ask you. What was the impact of your training there? And how were you influenced by the proximity to such marvelous material that they have there? Because, uh, that institute has some of the best paintings in the world.
Charles Reddington: Well, um, first off, the, the Art Institute fortunately was very close to a woman called Mrs. Potter Palmer. And she had, uh, this thing about having a little soirée every once in a while amongst the socialites of Chicago. And she would always go to France and buy a new painting when she had these soirées.
Charles Reddington: And she was buying, uh, con, uh, impressionist painting from unknown artists that she was, was....and she had this mar-, nar-, marvelous collection and it set a precedent amongst the society in Chicago so that everybody tried to copy Mrs. Potter Palmer. They all bought these paintings from France!
Guy Warren: Well, this is what you were growing up with.
Charles Reddington: Yes!
Guy Warren: So, you know, did these things influence your painting, did they? Your attitude to art?
Charles Reddington: Uh, the environment at the Art, Art Institute was very unique because the students were very serious. Uh, and the galleries were actually sort of, uh, where we learned more about art than anything else.
Guy Warren: The...they had one of the best Matisse's in the world there. I know it well. Um, now, in 1959 you moved to Melbourne, Australia, and took a lectureship at RMIT. What prompted that roo...that move, and how did you manage to get a lectureship at RMIT?
Charles Reddington: Well, I was in, um, in Chicago, and I met a young lady who was traveling, uh, through Chicago, uh, with the Katherine Dunham dance group. And they were in, uh, one of the islands in the, the...in the, the Caribbean, and they had a revolution. And it was Hai-she, Haiti. And consequently, her visa was it...uh, canceled, and she had to leave, so she flew to the States. And she was actually asked to leave. And I sort of rescued her by marrying her.
Charles Reddington: And, uh, that's...she was not, not very happy about Chicago, not very happy about the US. And she wanted to go home, which was then Australia.
Charles Reddington: So, I took a job sort of, which would earn me some money. And it wasn't painting. Well, I'll tell you what it was. It was driving a bloody bus in the city of Chicago. I did that for nine months, earned enough money. And sort of we...we bought a ticket to, uh, to Australia on the Baron Duna freighter line. It was a Swedish company. The best holiday I think I've ever had.
Guy Warren: Then you got to Melbourne. And what did you do there? How did you get a job at RMIT?
Charles Reddington: Well, prior to my leaving the US, uh, my wife sent some slides and documents about myself to her mother. Her grandmother, I beg your pardon. And...
Guy Warren: In Melbourne?
Charles Reddington: In...into Melbourne. And she in turn took those to the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Art Department and a guy called Greenway who was then the head of school. And, uh, he said, "Well, I'll just give him a job."
Guy Warren: Just like that!
Charles Reddington: In those days, you could do that.
Guy Warren: But how long were you teaching in Melbourne?
Charles Reddington: I taught there for a year. And Mr. Greenwall was not very happy when I told him that I had taken a job in, in Adelaide.
Guy Warren: Why would you want to...well, why did you want to go to Adelaide?
Charles Reddington: A friend of mine in Australia said, "Look, there's a job opening in Adelaide. Why don't you send some slides?"
Charles Reddington: And I said, "I don't want to do that," but he said, "Don't be silly! They'll probably be delighted!" Lo and behold, they asked me out for an interview. And I met a guy called Paul Beadle, who was then head of school. And I thought he was just magnificent. He was an Englishman. And he'd been in, uh...around the world.
Guy Warren: And, and teaching in Sydney too, before that.
Charles Reddington: Yeah, but I didn't know what his pedigree was prior to that. But I just liked him. And he said to me...he said the right things and did the right things. And we had a terrific lunch together. I guess that must have sealed it for me.
Guy Warren: And what, what are your memories of the South Australian School of Art? Did you think it was...?
Charles Reddington: Well, when I got there, it was...the South Australian School of Art was really sort of a, a, an institution that was started by the Education Department. And, uh, typically, it was ultraconservative. And, uh, they wanted...Paul, Paul Beadle wanted some kind of other stimulation in, in the school. And when he looked at my slides, he thought I would be...
Guy Warren: You fitted in, yeah.
Charles Reddington: Yeah, well, I could, yeah, carry the ball, so to speak.
Guy Warren: Yeah, that's great. Um, do you remember Udo Sellbach?
Charles Reddington: Oh, yes. Udo and I sort of...we, we, bonded together very quickly.
Guy Warren: Now, Udo apparently remembers you talking about "getting Dada back into the art." Now, what, what did you mean by this? Did you mean, did you mean humor, whimsy? Um, do you think you succeeded in doing it?
Charles Reddington: There was such a conservative element in the school.
Guy Warren: Do you want to...
Charles Reddington: And I, I, I really needed something to shake up the students. And first I wanted to start, uh, uh, an ethic in terms of hard work, seriousness, and also, uh, introducing the study of some other arts other than just English painting.
Guy Warren: Yeah. So...
Charles Reddington: So, I, I, I instituted an, an art history class in which I had two of the, the, the older students who were students. And so, I used to meet with them every week. And we'd go, uh, we'd go through art history. And they would then pass on some of the information to others. It was not easy, because I was trying to explain an invisible thing. They got...It was hard to actually, uh, give it a frame of some sort.
Guy Warren: Did they know about Dada before that?
Charles Reddington: They didn't know it. Really, there was...they were very limited. Art history was not sort of a subject that was actually taught in school.
Guy Warren: So, you think you succeeded in making some, some difference there? Did it, did it work? Did it...did it spark the students into doing other things?
Charles Reddington: It did. I think I confused a lot of them. Uh, I took away sort of what they were doing, sort of their, uh, their comfort zone so to speak. And, uh, I actually pulled the rug out from me, and they were really very, uh, confused. So, it took me about a year to actually nurture ... and I would books in and show them sort of books. Because there weren't any slides.
Charles Reddington: And, uh, I would actually sort of, uh...We, we would have a thing called a critique. One would...what I would do is I would organize a class and that we would have a general critique of everything that was being done at the time of the class.
Charles Reddington: And I would go around and talk about it. And I would try to actually give them a language so they could explain about their painting. You know, this...generally speaking the student would say, "Well, I like it." And I said, "That's not a criteria. We've got to actually be accurate about what is it we like, what is it we don't like, and, and share these ideas so that all of us can grow together."
Charles Reddington: And it worked. I mean, they became...they, they began to get better at describing their work. They became better about, uh, it, telling me what they were wanting to do. And I actually sort of brought in slides of any kind of venture or books, anything that I could of a graphic nature to further what I was ri-...what I was trying to, uh, preach to them, so to speak.
Guy Warren: Now, after a few years there...How, how many years were you there?
Charles Reddington: I was there for three years.
Guy Warren: Three years. And after that, you moved again, and this time to Sydney, in the early '60s. Why did you move to Sydney?
Charles Reddington: Well, a year before that I'd hitchhiked to Sydney from Adelaide because I mean, I, I wanted to see what was happening.
Charles Reddington: And, uh, I had reconnected with some people that I had known in, in Melbourne. Um, Clem Meadmore was one of them. Um, what's his name? Peter Upward, Horst Leopold, the whole series of them.
Charles Reddington: And they were sort of living in, uh, in, uh, Surry Hills. And I stayed with them. And it, it was such an active area. They were all planning to leave for England. And I was sort of, uh, j-just gobsmacked by the fact that there was so much ack, I, ack...artistic activity. I mean, I could feel it.
Charles Reddington: And so, I went back to Adelaide, and I put my resignation in for the following year. And they were then sort of wh-...employed somebody else. But there's a lot...there's another story to that, but I don't think it's necessary going thrins...going through it now.
Guy Warren: Well, that depends on whether it's important to you and your background as an artist.
Charles Reddington: Well, in some respects, I feel I've done Australia a great honor, because they employed a guy called Gordon Samstag, who was an American artist. And, uh, he brought with him not so much, uh, an educational, uh, uh, than you, but he brought with him a lot of money. And he started, uh, setting up a school and he set up scholarships.
Charles Reddington: And since then, there have been many marvelous scholarships for the students in South Australia. Something that I could have never done.
Guy Warren: Was he working with you in Adelaide?
Charles Reddington: Well, we were working against each other so I would...
Guy Warren: I see, yeah.
Charles Reddington: ...I was, I was the wall he used to bounce his ball against.
Guy Warren: Now, um, you came to Sydney. Now how long were you in Sydney for? How long did you work there?
Charles Reddington: I was in Sydney for three years. Three and a half years.
Guy Warren: That would have been the middle '60s?
Charles Reddington: Yeah.
Guy Warren: And you exhibited there? And what galleries did you exhibit in?
Charles Reddington: When I went to Sydney, it was in 1963. And, uh, I didn't have a job of any kind, and, uh, but I was delighted to be in this environment which was very, very exciting because Adelaide...I was sort of like the prime mover in Adelaide, and it was an exhausting thing.
Charles Reddington: Where in Sydney, there was activity going on. A lot of, a lot of great artists, uh, a lot of, uh, conversations about important things, or what I thought was very important things, or maybe what we thought were very important.
Charles Reddington: And then, uh, there I was teaching in a high school because I needed a job, a girls school in fact, Dover Heights High School, and I won a prize at the, the...was it...? I've forgotten the name of it, big prize...
Guy Warren: But you did won a prize at that time.
Charles Reddington: It was like fifteen hundred, uh, Guineas. And, uh, I was still teaching in a high school. So the whole thing was very, very sort of exciting. Coming to Sydney and having this happens, it, uh...
Guy Warren: Now, you exhibited in Sydney? When, when did you exhibit?
Charles Reddington: Initially, I had, uh, before I came to Sydney, I had a show with "The Hungry Horse." Betty O'Neil was the one responsible for that.
Guy Warren: This is after you arrived in Sydney or before?
Charles Reddington: No, this is before.
Guy Warren: Just before?
Charles Reddington: A year before I arrived.
Guy Warren: So sent ... you must have sent paintings up for that from Adelaide, yeah?
Charles Reddington: Yes, I packed those painting up, I can remember doing it very vividly. Yeah.
Guy Warren: And did you show it to any other galleries than the... Betty O'Neil ?
Charles Reddington: Well later on Max Hutchinson opened up I think ... a gallery called "The Gallery A." I think you probably know that one very well?
Guy Warren: I do, I, I showed there too.
Charles Reddington: Yeah. So it, it...Gallery A suddenly sort of exploded. He decides he...because I'd shown with him in Melbourne, he remembered me and, and asked me to join the gallery, which was nice to be invited.
Guy Warren: Mm-hmm. Good gallery.
Charles Reddington: And there was some good people I thought there, there was...Leonard Hessing was one of those, uh, sort of if I can remember all of them, I don't know. But there was a very convivial group of individuals.
Guy Warren: That was in the '60s, but then from 1970 to 1972, we find that you are back in America as professor of fine art of Indiana State University. What prompted that?
Charles Reddington: Just a little jumping ahead of the game. Uh, the situation occurred...sort of my domestic situation just became impossible. Uh, I was, uh, Colin Lanceley became sort of the recipient of the Rubenstein. And so, when he went on, he subdivided me to London and I thought, "Well, what a good idea." Things were not going too well domestically for me. So I went on to London.
Guy Warren: Did you work in London?
Charles Reddington: Well, the problem was that when I got to London I, they identified as an American alien, where I've never in Australia, no one ever actually threw my Americanism in my face. So it was a big surprise. It was probably a very silly move to make, because I wasn't an Australian and they were welcoming Australians that time.
Charles Reddington: What happened is that the Wilson government decided that Macmillan was allowing too many foreigners into the country, so they really clamp down on all of those that were coming into England, who didn't have the kind of pedigree that they thought was necessary. So 13 months later I was back in the States.
Guy Warren: That's how you, you got a job at Indiana, is it?
Charles Reddington: Well, actually, I had to do...I interviewed for the job and they said, "Well, we'd love to hire you but you don't have an MFA." So I said, "Oh well, give me an MFA". So they took me on as a student, a graduate student, and I became sort of like, uh, the hero of all the graduates since if they have complaints they come to me, and I would bring them to the faculty, because I knew how these things worked and they...
Guy Warren: Yeah, sure. And you were there teaching, you were a professor of fine arts there for how long?
Charles Reddington: No, I...Then I went to Indiana State University where I became sort of a full time professor. Uh, because I had teaching experience prior, I was hired as an assistant professor.
Guy Warren: So where did you get the MFA?
Charles Reddington: I got the MFA at Southern Illinois University.
Guy Warren: I see, and then from there you went then to Indiana. Yeah, that, that's interesting. Now, how long were you at Indiana?
Charles Reddington: Well, 20 odd years.
Guy Warren: Were you, really? As long as that?
Charles Reddington: What happened is in the art field, there's suddenly sort of... the university discovered that they had too many art professors. And so they started cutting back on departments. So getting, moving from there was not an easy chore. Mind you, I applied for many, many jobs. But I think in the long run, fate actually helped me, because I built a, a, a good rapport in Indiana. I became very good friends with the dean, which helped one hell of a lot.
Guy Warren: So OK. That was at Indiana. When did you move back to Australia after that?
Charles Reddington: I came to Australia, I was asked to do...
Guy Warren: This is the second time to Australia?
Charles Reddington: I met somebody in Italy, who was from Australia. And, uh, he was working in the school in...Oh! Bloody hell.
Guy Warren: Was he an artist?
Charles Reddington: Yeah, he was an artist.
Guy Warren: Do you know his name?
Charles Reddington: Yes, I do but it's not registering in my head.
Guy Warren: You'll think of it later. So you moved back to Australia. What year was that?
Charles Reddington: Uh, 1994 I think.
Guy Warren: '94?
Charles Reddington: Yeah. I had an exhibition, uh, in Australia, and a young lady came to the show. I met her...I beg your pardon, the show had an exhibition in Melbourne. She came, came to the show...
Guy Warren: This is still in 1990?
Charles Reddington: Yeah. She came to the show in Melbourne, and I thought she was wonderful and we've been together ever since.
Guy Warren: That's why you stayed in Australia. What a good reason. Now, somehow you've managed to continue your studio practice all the time, with all these major interruptions in your life. That couldn't have been easy.
Charles Reddington: No, but, uh, it was important for me to continue connecting. I, I think if I didn't paint, I would perish. It was...It was a, a way in which I could connect.
Guy Warren: Of course, of course, yep. Now...Now again, recently, two years ago in 2011, you made another major move. This time from Australia, and you're now settled in Ecuador, in South America. What prompted this latest move?
Charles Reddington: I think I've got itchy feet, but I'm also running. My wife was very keen on the whole idea as well. It's...we're...we're a partnership you know. We go...We go where we think it's best for one another.
Guy Warren: So there are probably several reasons, but would you say your moves have been motivated primarily because of personal reasons or is it that you just feel the need for, for constant stimulation in your work?
Charles Reddington: Well, that, that is...Constant stimulation is a good thing. I loved seeing Ecuador. I loved seeing the world, and I loved Australia. I loved seeing all of Australia. And it just a...It, it, it, it...Moving around like this into new environments is like sort of rejuvenating oneself.
Guy Warren: Yeah. Its, it's strange that you've worked at so many place. I often wonder whether you see yourself as, or did see yourself as an American painter working in Australia? And do you now see yourself as an Australian, or an American working in Ecuador? Or are you an American-Australian painter, or...does it matter to you anyway?
Charles Reddington: I think of myself as a painter, never mind my nationality. I think of myself as DH Lawrence.
Guy Warren: OK. So, now you're working in Ecuador. Uh, tell me, what initiates your paintings? Do you get ideas and stimulation, and inspiration from what, whatever your surroundings are, from the landscape, the people, or other aspects of the environment? What is it that stimulates you?
Charles Reddington: Many people have indicated to me, unbeknownst to myself, that the coloration that I'm using is very Ecuadorian. I was not conscious of that. It was not a conscious thing to do. It just comes by virtue of osmosis if you want to. Uh, it just...I just use a color that I sort of keep seeing everywhere.
Guy Warren: But I've done your paintings for a long time, and in my mind color has always been a constant in your work. Uh, I would see this as possibly a link which binds all your work together. Would that be a fair comment?
Charles Reddington: I think so. Color is very important. I think it's, uh, it's the emphasis of everything. It gives me a lot of joy. There's something about color which is, uh, fanciful. I, I feel it reju-, rejuvenates me. It makes me feel extremely young ... extremely young. And by God when I'm this age, there be a... Really important.
Guy Warren: You're just a kid. Now at times there seems to be a mix of ab-, abstraction with a figure or landscape references. Uh, would you like to comment on that? Is that two-way?
Charles Reddington: Yeah. Well, in Australia, the, the landscape was infinitely different than that which one of us could see in, in America. The, the landscape in the states was very ordered. And the, the landscape that I became in contact with in Australia, was a seemingly without an order, without a hand which was ordering it. It was more natural. And, uh, that hand...Those things have an enormous subconscious effect on me.
Guy Warren: Now apparently, some people who attributed an erotic quality to your work. Uh, would you care to comment on that?
Charles Reddington: Well, it's not erotic. It's whatever happens. It's what turns the world around. I mean, it's normal. It's natural. It's, it's not conscious.
Guy Warren: So, you would, you would see it yourself? You would see some erotic quality there, would you?
Charles Reddington: I do not see it, but other people have told me so often...that I must, I must admit to it. It's just something that...
Guy Warren: It just happens.
Charles Reddington: Yeah. There you go.
Guy Warren: Now, given that you were studying in the '50s...In the '50s in Chicago...that was the height of the abstract expressionist.
Charles Reddington: Yes, it was with me.
Guy Warren: Um, Clement Greenberg and all that. That must have influenced you a hell of a lot. Do you see yourself as an expressionist? Do you see yourself as an abstract-expressionist?
Charles Reddington: No.
Guy Warren: Even now?
Charles Reddington: No. No, I don't. Although I've been compared with that sort of thing, but what I...What I...What I grew up with was, as a young student, that which was exhibited at the Art Institute. You know they had...They had lecturers, and they had teachers and what not. But the best school was the fact going up in the galleries, and being able to see the real thing, and make your own judgment.
Guy Warren: Um, now you said to me recently I think, that you work entirely intuitively, um, but you don't rely on outside stimulation. That doesn't seem absolutely accurate from what you say, because you clearly do get stimulation from wherever you are, your environment. Now, whether it's direct landscape stimulation or, or something else, I'm not clear. Would you like to talk? Is it the color, or the textures, the light, or whatever? Talk about those.
Charles Reddington: It's all of them together. It's an accumulation. It's a sub-conscious accumulation as I walk around...It's the language. It's the, the movement, the, the, the sun, the, the weather. All of these things together manifest themselves, and, um, I respond to them. It's...But it's not an object so much as an atmosphere.
Guy Warren: Do you walk into the country, or the landscape, or the city, and draw? Or do you just...
Charles Reddington: I walk into the country-side.
Guy Warren: Is it by, by osmosis that you get these influences?
Charles Reddington: I have a very strong memory for form. When I go out into the country-side, I don't draw. When I come home, it all comes out of me. So it's like ... it floods out of me, I should say. And, uh, I suppose I should do more. I've done drawings in the, and, and uh, in vistas, and I've never been satisfied with it. I always prefer that what I do...
Guy Warren: Back in the, back in the studio.
Charles Reddington: Back in the studio, yeah.
Guy Warren: Um, I remember the work you were doing in the south coast of New South Wales very well and they were broad. I remember them -- broad areas of color, very open in form, very open in space, much more open than these paintings that we see around us now. Those were, those were paintings done in that sort of landscape. These are paintings done here in Ecuador. Do you see the difference? And do you see the differences because of your experiences in your life here in Ecuador?
Charles Reddington: I think that...What we...What we're looking at here is six or seven months of exposure in Ecuador. I'm still in the process of distilling it.
Guy Warren: Of course.
Charles Reddington: And, I think...I bet I've got some rubbings that I think are successful enough to take me on another path. I've got some, like a foundation. And now, I will work on it so that it actually becomes much more my, my own signature if you will.
Guy Warren: So you see differences in your work here from what you did in Australia?
Charles Reddington: Yeah. Undoubtedly, undoubtedly. Isn't it completely different? I guess I pai... I'm not realizing, I paint my surroundings. I don't paint trees. I don't paint foot-paths. I don't paint buildings. I just paint what I think I feel, and sometimes that's very hard to do. Sometimes it's impossible.
Guy Warren: It's always hard to do. Um...
Charles Reddington: I'm, I'm really having the time of my life. I mean, I'm enjoying myself enormously. I feel like a kid again. And...by god, that's something.
Guy Warren: That's something at your age, yes. Mind you, you're still a kid now, Charles. You're just a youngster. Um, in retrospect would you say that...I mean, you've had a pretty dramatic lifestyle moving from country, to country, to country. Um, would it have been more beneficial to your professional development to have stayed in one place, do you think? Would it have been easier? Would it have been better? Would it have made you have, uh...Would you had more productive life?
Charles Reddington: It could have been all those things, I don't know. It's sort of a "it is what it is," and I'm having the time of my life now. I feel like a kid again, and, I'm, I'm full of excitement and exuberance. And I've been rejuvenated by the move.
Guy Warren: So what are you getting out of Ecuador do you think? Is it the color, the lights, the texture, the people?
Charles Reddington: The culture.
Guy Warren: The culture.
Charles Reddington: Yeah. It's a sort of like a most unusual culture. One I've never been exposed to in my entire life, and they all speak a different language than I speak. I don't speak Spanish much to my disappointment. But the people are lovely. The country is sort of remarkable, sort of...And it is...It's warm all year around which is a...you disagree.
Charles Reddington: Unfortunately, you've had some bad weather, but generally speaking it is very pleasant. And I'm having the time of my life.
Guy Warren: With the landscape, at least some of the landscape that we've seen, it's so immensely dramatic, that I find it difficult to believe that, that in some way it would not influence your work.
Charles Reddington: It does, it does.
Guy Warren: Would you...I mean, given that you've had a pretty dramatic lifestyle change, in fact, you've had many changes during your professional development, would you have been...Would your work have been any different? Would it have been any better for you if you hadn't had these changes? Would it have been easier for you, professionally better? How do you feel about all that?
Charles Reddington: Well, Rommie, and I went back to the states with the idea that maybe we could relocate again. And when I got back there, I just felt so foreign. I just felt...
Guy Warren: You didn't feel like an American any longer?
Charles Reddington: Not at all. I felt sort of completely out of joint. Just a...I couldn't understand the Americans. I couldn't understand some of my family. I couldn't under...It's just, I didn't gel with anything. It was a...It was a foreign country. It was a foreign country.
Guy Warren: This was because you'd had been away too long or?
Charles Reddington: I think so. I think so. Americans were talking about things which I had no used to at all. Well in fact, I even looked up some of my old friends that I had gone to graduate school with who were still in Chicago, and I didn't have a hell of a lot to say to them. I was really trying to find the loose threads that, uh, existed, and they weren't there.
Guy Warren: Well this goes back to one of my earlier questions. You don't feel like an American painter. Do you feel like an Australian painter? Do you feel like a worldwide painter? Do you feel universal?
Charles Reddington: Oh, I'd love to be a worldwide painter. No.
Guy Warren: No. Inside you're a universal man. You don't care where you are.
Charles Reddington: I've never, ever been happy in the United States, ever. I've never...I taught there for 20 odd years, and I never really felt comfortable being an American, whatever that means. I never had the strong, patriotic feeling. I never...I could not understand my fellow Americans, uh, what drove them, what manifest them. It, it's just, uh...I felt always a little bit out of step in the US. Not their fault, my fault.
Guy Warren: No, that's not your fault. Um, so what, if any, is the next move?
Charles Reddington: That's like...
Guy Warren: Can you answer that?
Charles Reddington: The magic question. Oh god, I have no idea. The next move will be so that I will try distilling so much more my work. I'm going to be...I'm going to continue painting. In which, it gives me...It gives me life, you know.
Guy Warren: Great. That's fantastic. Charles, do you want to say anything more about, um, your time...about a, your painting now or b, your time in Australia in the '60s and '70s, and your reaction and attitude to the paintings at the time?
Charles Reddington: I think I, I am forever grateful to Australia. They gave me something that I've never had before.
Guy Warren: What was that?
Charles Reddington: A feeling of wanting, a feeling of being, a feeling of, uh, substance, a...There's something very, very special about Australia in, in my, my psyche. I, I shall...I'll never forget it. It has given me something that I never thought I could ever achieve. And that is, uh, myself. I like being who I am, trapped inside this body. I like it! And Australia gave me a lot of that.
Guy Warren: I think that's probably a very good point at which to stop. Thank you, Charles. Thank you very much indeed. That was fantastic.
Charles Reddington: Uh, thank you very much for the interview.
Interviewer: Guy Warren
Camera, lighting & sound: Paul Warren
Video editing: Dr Bob Jansen
Technical & assembly: Dr. Bob Jansen