Max Mannix Downtown Saturday morning

Downtown Saturday morning is a scene I knew well from growing up around the Bendigo district, Victoria, in the 1950s. Back then, the shops were open until midday on Saturday. The farmers and their families would take their weekly trip into town. Usually the first stop for the wives was the hair salon. The men would get together and talk as farmers often do about crops and rain and such. The families would do the weekly shop and wander off to the footy. This painting shows the busyness of such a morning, which I would describe as typical rather than particular. It is a social comment about a period of my life.

- Max Mannix, 2015