#119A ARTSNATIONAL Gold Coast
July 2026 Lecture and Morning Tea
'Cartoons and Contraptions -
The Wonderful World of W. Heath Robinson.'
Jazz Bagpipes - W.H.R
W. Heath Robinson became famous for designing bizarrely complicated devices for the simplest of tasks like wart removal or pancake making. He and his gadgets became so famous that Bletchley Park named one of their wartime code-breaking machines after him. Later still, some of the contraptions in Wallace and Gromit’s The Wrong Trousers are based on a gadget filled house that he made for the Ideal Home Show in 1934. Heath Robinson was also a fine painter, an outstanding literary illustrator and a brilliant satirist, who poked gentle fun at modern life in cartoons that are still hilarious!
Biography: Barry Venning is an art historian whose interests and teaching range from the art of late medieval Europe to global contemporary art. He has published books, articles and exhibition catalogue essays on Turner, Constable and European landscape painting, but also has an ongoing research interest in postcolonial art and British visual satire. He works as a consultant and associate lecturer for the Open University. His media work includes two BBC TV documentaries, radio appearances for BBC local radio and ABC Australia, and a DVD on Turner for the Tate
"Paintbrushes at Dawn - The world's greatest artistic feuds, rows and quarrels".
Our speaker from The Arts Society (UK) is Barry Venning.
Date
Saturday 11 July 2026 11:15 AM - 12:15 PM (UTC+10)Location
The Lakeside Room, HOTA
135 Bundall Road, Surfers Paradise Qld 4217