Ramon Ward-Thompson

Ramon was born in Masterton in the North Island of New Zealand in 1941. In 1959 he left New Zealand and spent four years in Europe and London traveling and studying art, before making his home permanently in Australia.

In the early 1970s Ramon decided to concentrate wholly on his art and it was at this time that he moved to Berrima in the Southern Highlands of New south Wales ? a move that was to greatly influence his painting style. The soft misty light that is often to be seen in the Highlands was introduced into his paintings and is a well-known and looked for feature in Ramons work today. It was in these years that Ramon became known for his soft romantic interpretation of life in the Australian bush, often painting his own small daughters as they went about their daily chores of feeding the chooks or gathering pinecones.

Ramon now lives and paints in Sydney and the love of his adopted city is evident in his portrayal of Sydney Harbour and the surrounding city area.

Ramon brings to his studies of city life ? the outdoor cafes, flower markets and old terrace houses the same soft study in light that has always been uniquely his own. He also enjoys painting in the great cities of Europe and returns whenever possible to capture the softer European light against a background of old historic buildings and monuments. Ramon has recently spent time in Paris, Venice and New York and since his return has been working on his impressions of these beautiful and different cities.

Ramon has been painting on a full-time basis for 35 years, is a Fellow of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales and is represented in galleries and collections both here and overseas. He has had many successful one-man exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Tokyo and San Francisco and has had his works reproduced in limited and open edition prints. A limited edition book titled The Life and Art of Ramon Ward-Thompson was published in 1994. Ramon is also featured in Kevin Hill's Top Ten Book ( 2010 Edition)