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The Story of a Masterpiece … and Its Painter Donald Friend-by Dr Srilal Fernando Source:Thuppahis In 1969 James Gleeson, a well-respected authority on Australian painting, wrote a book called the Masterpieces of Australian Painting. It covered a full range of Australian painting from the colonial period up to the 1960’s. Of the nearly 75 artists selected, one was Donald Friend, who as most of the readers know spent 5 years in Ceylon, as a guest of Bevis Bawa. Of all the paintings by Friend he selected one which was titled The Puppets. The painting done in 1965 in Australia after returning from Ceylon by Donald Friend, but before he settled down in Bali. In his introduction Gleeson writes that Donald Friend was considered the one of the great, if not the greatest figurative artist in Australian Art. The painting itself was a large one in gouache and ink with highlights in Chinese white, with ...