DRAWING FROM THE RIVER BREMER
IAN HAMILTON | BILL MORROW
31 July - 24 August 2025
Opening night: 6-8pm Thursday 31 July
Opening speaker: Dr Gavin Malone, Cultural geographer
Artist talk: 2pm Saturday 9 August
A Tribute to Bill Morrow
West Gallery Thebarton acknowledges the sudden and untimely passing of Bill Morrow on Wednesday 13 August 2025.
Bill, together with artist and friend Ian Hamilton, mounted the highly successful SALA exhibition Drawing from the River Bremer. For Bill, the exhibition was both his debut as a painter and the culmination of 30 years of artistic and philosophical practice. He was looking forward to continuing to develop this dual approach in future work based around the Adelaide Hills.
Bill will be remembered as a generous contributor to the visual arts in South Australia, both as a practitioner and as an advocate for artists’ rights. His practice as a solicitor specialising in intellectual property enabled his voluntary work as a Board member of both the National Association for the Visual Arts and Artlink Australia.
Much of Bill’s art draws from Chinese landscape art and the philosophical writings of people like Doaji (1642 – 1708):
Mountains and streams emerge from me,
And I, from mountains and streams.
Drawing from the River Bremer was a culmination of many years of work spanning the entire length of the river, resulting in drawings, paintings, photographs and videos that illustrated a deep love of nature, and the complex nature of humanity’s impact on the natural world. Bill’s warm and generous nature was evident in his interaction with people he met along the river.
Bill will be deeply missed and we extend our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and collaborators.
About the exhibition
After years of painting, drawing and photographing in the Adelaide Hills, Ian Hamilton and Bill Morrow have spent the last six years focusing on the River Bremer and its surrounds. This little-known stream rises near Mount Torrens and flows through Harrogate, Callington and Langhorne Creek before entering Lake Alexandrina. By the 1860s, the river’s valley had been denuded of trees for mining and smelting, with industries using the waterway as a drain—long before cameras could capture what was about to be lost.
The work in this exhibition reflects time spent listening to the sound of the wind, the flow of water, the calls of birds; watching cloud shadows race across folding hills, reflections from rock pools and the flight of birds, observing the changing colours of the seasons, paddocks shifting from summer straw to winter green.
Please note: the gallery will only be open beteen 31 July to 24 August 2025
11am-5pm Thursday to Saturday & 1-5pm Sunday
Stair access only