Aldinga

James Cant and his wife, fellow artist Dora Chapman, are important figures in Australian art who were instrumental in the establishment in Sydney of SORA (Studio of Realist Art) in 1945. During his earlier career, Cant contributed to English and Australian Surrealism, while Chapman established her reputation as a portraitist. Subjects were subsequently diverse, ranged from urban realism to still life; but following a move to South Australia in 1957, the later work of both artists centred on landscape. Dora Chapman was also a popular and respected teacher of art at the South Australian School of Art in Adelaide.

'Aldinga' dates from an important phase of experimentation with abstraction though screenprinting, which Chapman took up following retirement from teaching in 1969. Its distinctive palette evokes the opalescent clarity of light at this small settlement near the coast, south of Adelaide - where the two artists had a holiday weekender during their later years.