October 12th, 2026Hart of the Northern Gold Coast
Artist David Hart has had a tough year, to say the least.
First, he lost his beloved mother Raylee in March, then his daughter Chloe faced life-threatening heart issues, at the age of just 31. All while he and wife Christine navigated the huge move from Brisbane to the Northern Gold Coast. But, with Chloe on the mend, he has, as you do, kept going and his three-storey Main Beach Gallery is open for business. Down the road a little, he has a large studio, where he works most days. And that’s where we met for a chat.
Donna: You grew up in Broken Hill. David: I was there from obviously age zero right through until I was 21. And then moved to Brisbane and probably spent about a good seven years on the north side. That’s where I got started with my painting – more to create a living. Prior to that I’d been painting since I was 16 in Broken Hill. People ask me where I learnt to paint but I never had an art lesson – technically my whole life was an art lesson. I would walk in and Dad (Pro Hart) would be putting some trees in a painting or painting a building or putting the sky in. So over time you learn the order of things, how to work your way out of a painting. I taught myself my own colour mixing and a lot of these were outback type paintings. They’re all in a totally different format to how Dad used to paint. He painted a lot with oils and a very different technique where he would put the oil on and then use turps and little rags and tissues to kind of lift the paint off, to create marks and whatnot. With mine it’s lots of different stains and all acrylics and water-based paints.
Donna: What was it like growing up in such a remote area? David: It was great. We lived right on the edge of town and you could push your motorbike a couple of blocks down the road, kick start your bike and take off into the bush. I’d come home from school, make a sandwich and one of my mates would come over and we’d just go riding until the sun went down. Dad also created opportunities for you to have a crack at things – like welding. I’ve still got some of my old sculptures I did when I was eight or nine. He had this massive scrap metal pile down in the backyard and we would go scavenging through it and find all these interesting parts. I was too young to use the welder, so I had to talk Dad into coming out and helping me while I held things together. He got so sick of getting interrupted he taught me how to weld and use grinders when I was 10. We had lots of interesting opportunities – sculpture and clay and enamelling. He was a good dad. You just had to know how to handle him. He wasn’t the sort of dad who would come and kick a football with you.
Donna: What about your mum Raylee – was she an artist? David: No, but Dad couldn’t have done what he did without her. Mum was very good at looking after all the visitors that came and when I say visitors, it could have been the Premier of New South Wales, it could have been the Police Superintendent from New South Wales. They came to Broken Hill and then people would say ‘oh, you’ve got to go up to the gallery and see Pro’. And if he didn’t have Mum, he just wouldn’t have had time to paint. She added to what he was able to build and create over his lifetime, but in a different way. She never had an education, but she could sit down with anyone and make them feel like they were the next-door neighbour and make them feel welcome.
Donna: Brisbane must have been a bit of a culture shock? David: Yes, it was but it was good because we were able to hold exhibitions there – and there were more people to attend. That’s really where my art started to take off. Then we went from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast. And that’s where we had our first gallery, like a first kind of really solid gallery, in Mooloolaba. We had a lot of good years there, with another gallery at Noosa, right up until probably the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) and that just smashed everybody because art is a luxury item. A painting is expendable income. We had to ask how can we still reach people and support our brand? I really like doing collaborations and we got in touch with Maxwell & Williams, and Max was happy to work together, and I was an artist for those guys for quite a few years. I did a massive mural for the London Olympics with Cathy Freeman and Geoff Huegill where they sent time lapses of me painting it to the Olympic Village with hero messages. Max saw that and we ended up creating a lot of cups, mugs, placemats and platters which led to better relationships between business and art.
Donna: And now the move to the Northern Gold Coast? David: Yes, our kids had moved out of home and we went back to Brisbane and then we moved down here about eight weeks ago. We have the gallery in Tedder Avenue and we live in Main Beach as well.
Donna: What would you call your style of painting? David: I’m always just creating. I had this conversation with Christine yesterday because there’s styles that I paint that I’ve painted for 37 years. And then, every year I paint something a bit different. It’s like anything that you do, sometimes it’s good to put things aside for a while. Or maybe you don’t paint them again, or maybe they’re things you don’t paint very much anymore. A lot of artists only have the one style, and they paint the same sort of subject. That can probably get very tiring for them if they do it for a lifetime. I like to keep pushing the boundaries. I used a colour palette yesterday that I’ve never used in my lifetime. I created a painting from four colours and you push yourself to find the colours that you want to create, what you want to do. That gets you a bit more excited.
Donna: Do clients ever want something specific? Or just a painting? David: Some clients who have bought from us over the years will have something in mind that they want. They might love my outback work but want something bigger. I will create something that I get a feel for. I’m not one that, how should I put this; I don’t like it when people tell me how to paint the painting. I can’t do that because it’ll drive me nuts.
Donna: You’ve had a shit year. Do you paint dark when that happens? David: No, I just don’t paint. I’ll find something else to do. Some days you get up and you don’t feel like going to work. But I have to go to work because it is what I do every day. You just push past it and you can end up creating something good anyway. Or you might be low on energy and it’s just not your day. I don’t want to put myself into a canvas on those sort of days, so I’ll just do something else. Maybe stretch some canvases, build some new shapes and sizes. And when I am feeling good again the next day I throw up a canvas and get stuck into it again.
Donna: You have a great work ethic. But don’t people want to meet you at the gallery? David: Chris gets asked that a little bit and when I do go in, it’s always nice to meet people. The only reason I don’t go in very much is because I’m always here painting, working. And by the time I finish, the gallery’s closed.
*David will be at the launch of HartFinds The Collector’s Exhibition at David Hart Galleries in Tedder Avenue, Main Beach on Saturday, October 10 from 4pm to 6pm. Bubbles and refreshments, smart casual dress. RSVP to admin@hartfinds.com.au The exhibition runs until October 25.
Words: Donna Kelly | Images: Kyle Barnes Are you an artist we should be featuring? Know one? Email news@tlnews.com.au
