While his genius and individuality was expressed through an impressive range of media from printmaking to sculpture, it was painting that was the means by which he could truly make sense of the world.

In an essential sense this painting has everything of Whiteley. 

Whiteley’s My Armchair, a major painting from 1976, bears the inscription in the upper right corner: Astral Weeks, a reference to the title of a famous album produced by the Irish singer Van Morrison in 1968. 

When a painting exceeds its estimate its always a good thing, and when it breaks a record it’s a very good feeling for the auctioneers as well. 

Brett Whiteley was one of Sydney’s most accomplished sons. Whiteley was born in 1939 and his artistic trajectory was astonishing.

This painting has never been seen in Australia. Brett Whiteley created his Gauguin at the Chelsea Hotel in New York in 1968 and it has remained there until this time. 

Brett Whiteley’s elegantly subtle multi-media painting Heron, Rain and Wind of 1973, reveals a hidden, certainly lesser-known, side of the Sydney wunderkind...