Digging a New Dunny – SOLD

Having Pro Hart works in the Art Studio is always fun! Especially when you have one as entertaining and as full of colour and character as this painting that depicts the old Aussie bush necessity of digging a hole for a dunny!

With his typical use of rich colours, Pro Hart depicts a pair of diligent dunny diggers taking turns with their shovels to dig a deep new pit for the family’s outdoor toilet, what we Australians know as a dunny! The scene portrayed by Pro Hart is characteristic of his paintings that are reminiscences of his experiences living in the mining town of Broken Hill when he toiled as an underground miner before his artistic talents were discovered and he went on to become one of Australia’s best-known artists.

This quality oil by Pro captures the character of the town with mining equipment as the backdrop, paling fences around houses, washing on the line, gum trees, and the outback earth. 

As with many of Pro’s paintings, he depicts with a down to earth humour the day to day happenings and practicalities that were around him, creating works that are distinctly Australian in character and often with entertaining aspects that Australians can relate to and laugh about – “Digging the New Dunny” is definitely one of those works! 

An indicator of this oil’s fine quality is that Pro Hart has inscribed the title of the piece on the front of the painting – not a common occurrence with all of his oils.