IT’S a long way from bustling Berlin or even from Sydney’s iconic beaches, but artist Volker Leder is brimming with happiness about living in Lightning Ridge.
When Volker and his wife Renata found themselves to be empty-nesters as their two children moved out of their Maroubra home, it was an opportunity to pursue a long-held dream - to paint bush landscapes on a full-time basis.
Having emigrated with his young family from Germany when he was 30 years old, Volker worked for many years in the printing trade at Australian Consolidated Press (ACP) in the heart of Sydney.
He completed an apprenticeship as a negative retoucher - a trade he points out no longer exists due to modern printing technology - but once there was a brush in his hand, adding colour to monochrome negatives, a passion for painting was unearthed.
Volker had been visiting Lightning Ridge, 760 kilometres north-west of Sydney, since the 1970s, enchanted by the landscape and its distinctive colours.
"I had a few friends there and we continued to be connected, so when I reached middle age, the children grew up and left - and you can see your dream, maybe you can achieve it," he said.
"We were invited up here for six months in 1983 and Renata and I came for good, rented a house, in 1984."
An exhibition last year at the Western Plains Cultural Centre at Dubbo was well received, and Volker hopes there will be more opportunities.
He is a profilic painter, can’t wait to jump out of bed and work six days a week, and sells pictures locally, but the paradox of living outback is the lack of commercial exposure.
"We’ve been here 25 years, never looked back, no regrets," Volker said.
"The chance for change came, we smelt it in the air, and followed it - it’s an adventure."
For many years he was a self-described "Sunday painter", juggling a mortgage and family commitments with quick trips to places like Camden, Picton, and even Baulkham Hills, to paint what he saw.
Now, if Volker can sell enough work to buy painting materials and petrol to travel to different regions, he is sublimely content.
Asked if Renata liked his work, Volker said "it is hanging everywhere, and not only hanging, it is stacked in the spare room, so if she didn’t like it, I would get the message, it would not be allowed. It is our life".
He finds it difficult to pin down the lure of the Opal City.
"It’s not easy in a couple of sentences to explain, you must experience it.
"If you live all your life in a big city like Berlin or Sydney, you are losing a lot. It was a little bit different to suddenly jump into a little village, and in the outback too, but it all worked well - it’s just pure happiness."
Every painting is "a different kettle of fish" and Volker is never remotely bored by his subject matter.
"Always your eyes are open, if you are aware - you see that something, your put your colour and brushstroke and your happiness to it," he said.
"And then you hope the verdict from the people will be good."
Volker said it was not difficult to interpret the Australian outback’s distinctive colours.
He is an enthusiastic art historian, well versed in the European masters and passionate about impressionism.
At 72 years of age, Volker says he is thankful for robust health and a strong creative urge.
"I think if you don’t like what you’re doing, you get headaches, you get sick and ill and you’re grumpy," he observed.
"It was fantastic to get the show in Dubbo, it was a dream to get those walls.
"I am more than ready for another show, convinced it would surprise people, but I can’t tell. They will have to judge."
