City of Armadale - History House > Records

PAINTING - RIVER ROAD DELI KELMSCOTT

2003
Overview

Rectangle colour painting of a two buildings, blue sky with white clouds in background, dirt in foreground. Left building is white with a green roof. Main building has two parts. Left part is a cream walled building with a brown tin roofed veranda, tin pitched roof with green gable at the front with white writing on it [Eat Peters ICE / CREAM]. Orange and black text along front of veranda. At front of building is a door with glass panel and a large glass window. In front of this are blackboards, a public bench a wooden bench and a rubbish bin. Attached to the right of this building is a brick structure with a central door with a window on either side. Side of building is cream with black writing [SWAN LAGER / Goods & Gold / KEGS & BOTTLES]. Tress with a few green leaves and red flowers behind building. Black signature bottom right corner. Painting inside a wood frame, image painted on canvas stretched over Masonite board with acrylic paints

Historical information

In September/October 1958 Henry Edward Short and his wife Constance Mary purchased the River Road Deli in Kelmscott. The Short family, children Maureen, Mary and Richard, had recently migrated to Australia from Great Britain In September 1958. The family lived in the house which was attached to the back of the store. Around 1959 Henry built a brick addition to the store to house a bottle shop. He received the license to sell take away alcohol in 1959. The family sold the store in 1962. Not long after the family minus Maureen, who had recently gotten married to Peter Smulders, moved back to Great Britain. Maureen lived in Kelmscott until 1992 before moving to Rockingham. In 2003 she asked her artist friend Patricia Barber to paint the store based upon a 1959 photograph. The painting was displayed in Maureen's Rockingham home from 2003-2020.
Henry used to also deliver grocers to local homes and was a founding member of the Kelmscott Football (Soccer) Club. Children Mary and Richard spend a short while back in Great Britain before returning to Australia. Mary settled in Western Australia while Richard moved to Queensland. in 2006 Maureen s husband Peter passed away, in 2013 Maureen remarried.

Details

Details

Registration number
cwa-org-33-COA2021.48
Themes
Art and Design
People
Social History
Material
Wood
Width
536 mm
Height or length
596 mm
Inscriptions and markings

signature [PATRICIA BARBER]

Keywords
OXFORD University Press
Year
2003
Statement of significance

MEDIUM
This painting was commissioned by Maureen Gausten and is based upon a 1959 photograph of the River Road Deli in Kelmscott. It is by artist Patricia Barber. Maureen spent four years living at the shop which her father, Henry Short purchased in 1958. He built the brick addition on the right when he received a license to sell takeaway alcohol in 1959.

City of Armadale - History House

City of Armadale - History House

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