Marlene and Clifton Pugh at Dunmoochin, by Sue Ford, 1964, exhibition print from digital file, courtesy of the Sue Ford Archive, copyright of the Estate of the artist

The areas north-east of Melbourne have been sites of several collective experiences of art and life, such as Justus Jörgensen’s Montsalvat and Clifton Pugh’s Dunmoochin. In 1951, with assistance from potter Alma Shanahan and painter Myra Skipper, Clifton Pugh began to buy acres of scrub at Cottles Bridge. This would be the beginning of the Dunmoochin Artists’ Society, a community of painters and potters that owned 200 acres of land and that continues today through the Dunmoochin Foundation. This photograph of Clifton and Marlene Pugh, his partner of 20 years and a painter and potter, was taken by artist-photographer Sue Ford, who lived in Eltham for about 14 years.