Rod Grant is an artist, teacher and printmaker whose work references his interpretations of the natural and man-made world in which he has travelled and experienced.

Rod graduated from Sydney University with a degree in Fine Art. He has a diploma in Education from Sydney College and has been teaching Visual Art since the late 1970’s. Rod has been teaching at Mosman High since 1988 and was head of the Visual Art faculty from 1999 to 2016. He still works there on a casual teaching basis and advises HSC students when necessary. He has been a Senior Marker for the HSC in both Painting and Graphics helping compose corporate marking scales and often travelling the state to mark itinerantly. Rod has also helped set up state Artexpress exhibitions on several occasions.

Rod Grant has been exhibiting his Art in many group exhibitions since the early 1990’s in both painting and printmaking, although collagraph printing now dominates his practice.

A collagraph is a mix between intaglio printmaking (etching) where the cuts hold the ink, creating dark lines, and relief printing where the raised surface creates an image, a bit like lino printing. The inks that are used in the printmaking process are archival and the gold is laid down both during the print and after depending on the image. Hand colouring is done using Schmincke watercolours.

Rod’s ouvre represents connections between the physical and interpreted imagery of innate constructions and juxtapositions. Images of Neolithic stones, carvings and surfaces are his interest as well as an often-spiritual connection to what we see and experience. Indeed, the weathered surface is intrinsic to what we discern. These images are developed from drawings and photographs from his extensive travels through Ireland, France, Greece and the outback reaches of Oz (particularly NSW). The imagery often looks at a Celtic overview and has been developed from an insightful, often whimsical, understanding of our world and our roles – sometimes follies. Still life, landscapes and figures (totems) are his subject matter and all of his exhibitions play with the nuance of theme and context.

Rod has exhibited successfully at AGOD every year since 2018 and has shown his art in regional galleries such an NERAM, Mosman, Cowra and Inverell. He was runner up in the senior division in the Inverell Art Prize in 2021. He has participated and shown successfully in the Mosman Art walk since its inception and sat on the board of the Mosman Regional Gallery for 15 years up to his retirement from teaching.

Rod lives and works in Balmain and his artwork is in many collections in Australia as well as other countries such as Ireland.

‘ROD GRANT HAS BEEN EXHIBITING HIS ART IN MANY GROUP EXHIBITIONS SINCE THE EARLY 1990s IN BOTH PAINTING AND PRINTMAKING, ALTHOUGH COLLAGRAPH PRINTING NOW DOMINATES HIS PRACTICE.’