JOHN Dynon, maybe more familiar as Silverton’s Emu Man, is a well-known local larrikin in Broken Hill, though even more famous for his iconic art.
Dynon grew up in Broken Hill and now has a gallery in Silverton showcasing his outback scenery and emu characters.
He loved drawing as a child, but had never thought to paint until his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, bought him a set of paints.
“I told her it was a waste because I couldn’t paint,” he said.
He decided to try and learn, and so paid artist Jack Absalom, one of the renowned Brushmen of the Bush, a visit.
“He was rough as guts, swore a lot,” Dynon said.
“I went round to his house, knocked on the door and asked him to give me some tips so I could learn to paint.
“He told me things as he painted, then he gave me some paints and brushes and told me to go out bush and come back with a painting.”
Dynon said he spent the entire day painting out bush, before returning with his work to show Absalom for review.
“He looked at it and he screamed at me,” Dynon said.
“He goes “boy, you’ve been playing with me!”
“I said what do you mean, Jack? And he said ‘you told me you can’t bloody paint. Well if you’ve done that, take these brushes and don’t come back, because that’s a bloody good job!”’
Mr Dynon and his wife bought a house in South Broken Hill, and his wife suggested the pair build a gallery room to house his work.
“I said we can’t afford it,” he said.
“But she said let’s take out a loan, we’ll be right, and so we did.
“I was the artist, she was everything else.
“She was very smart, so we did it all together.”
Dynon originally learnt to paint using oils, but realised the paint fumes, along with the fumes underground where he worked as a miner, were taking their toll on his lungs.
“I was working in the mines, so not good for the lungs, and then sitting in a shed, with no windows, painting with oils,” he said.
He decided to learn to paint with acrylic instead, and at about forty years old, retired from the mines to become a full-time painter.
“The scenes I paint are out of my head,” he said.
“I’ve been brought up in the bush, and on the river, and so if I see something I can pretty well paint it.”
He said he’d never thought to paint emus, but there was an artist in town called the Emu Man many years ago, and upon moving away, Dynon helped to sell his work for him.
“When he left town I said would you leave your paintings here and I’ll sell them for you?’ Dynon said.
“And he said, no worries. For years and years, I sold his paintings, and he was selling maybe double what I was selling.
“I never thought I’d paint emus, but everyone kept asking for souvenirs and T-shirts.
“So I rang him up and said can you do souvenirs?
“And he said I’m not into that, paint your own.
“I told him I don’t paint emus, and he said well you better start.
“So I did and the emus took over, I never looked back.
“I never gave myself the name Emu Man, but people started coming in here saying ‘oh you’re the Emu Man’.
“I’m really not the Emu Man but they think I am so I though, just let them keep thinking that.”
Dynon said he hopes to one day live in Silverton again, nearby his gallery.
“When I was young I kept having this dream of owning a house in the bush with a pub down the road,” he said.
“Well, when we used to live up the road in Silverton Heights that was pretty much the same as the dream.”
He also said he’d like to go to Sydney, rent a warehouse and paint by the harbour for a while, just to change things up.
