“Time makes a good artist” affirms Dale Frank, whose extraordinary life and work as one of Australia’s most successful yet reclusive artists are the focus of a captivating documentary film.

Filmmaker Jenny Hicks has devoted much time to capture rare glimpses into Frank’s life around his colourful home inhabited by a vast menagerie of polar bears, giraffes, lions and other stuffed animals. She tracks his obsessiveness with work and his struggles with chronic pain, evening walks with his most loyal Irish wolfhound Puppy Grey and coming to terms with a recent neurodiverse diagnosis.

Dale Frank - Nobody's Sweetie, 2024 (still frame studio)

Over three years in the making, Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie made its WA premiere in this year’s 17^th edition of Cinefest Oz. Originated in the South West, the film festival attracts many viewers to the region as a showcase for Australia’s distinctive talent in filmmaking across a comprehensive variety of genres.

The 107-minute-long film was mostly set at Frank’s property near Singleton, New South Wales, ranging between his 19^th century house that holds Australia’s largest private natural history collection, its extensive botanical garden of big, rescued trees from afar places, and his studio workspace.

Hicks, who has had a vast international career as film editor, chose Frank for her first feature documentary to tell his story as an abstract artist who succeeded through determination and a commitment to making art that resonates to his artistic multidisciplinary vision.

The title is a reference to Frank’s 2013 show at Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney, where he has exhibited for the past 40 years. Hicks follows a biographical documentary style, including archival videos and photographs to contextualise Frank’s career, the artist and his two assistants working in the studio, interviews with gallerists, curators and art writers, as well as Frank’s own reflections about life, his fears and the nature of time.

His best feature was his adventurous fun loving try anything nature, and his popularity in
Sunshine, which he put down was due to the large number of Colonoscopies he had
regularly, Dale Frank 2024 - 200 x 200 cm

The concept of time is highly explored in the documentary. Hicks’s ability to unveil Frank’s urgency in making his works prompts questions about his method and intentions. In one scene, Frank finds himself one large piece short of the consignment to send to Sydney, and quickly goes back into his studio to make another painting.

Was all that work created unintentionally? As I continue watching, I understood that what is behind each painting is not caused by accident but by a technical mastery where detail prevails above anything else. Detail in the making of colours, mixing and pouring them onto the surface, creating textures by manoeuvring the layers of paint with a large squeegee, and the chemical reaction between its different components until he achieves its perfection.

Halfway through watching the documentary, I thought: “How good could it be to see these paintings live on the flesh?” Lucky me, I had a ticket to Sydney and flew to see Frank’s works live at the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair.

Frank started his career in the late 1970s, but it was in 1982 that he became noticed at the Sydney Biennale. That was when gallerist Roslyn Oxley saw his work for the first time. “I saw this big, large drawing of Dale’s and I said, ‘We have to have his work!’,” she tells me at her gallery’s booth at the Art Fair.

Roslyn and her husband Tony Oxley appear throughout the documentary. In one scene, they visit Frank at hi country estate before his upcoming show to look at new works. “What has Dale done now?” Roslyn asks smiling to the camera. When they join Frank at his kitchen table for a meal, it resulted in a touching moment in the film and revealed a familiarity common amongst good friends.

Back in Sydney, Roslyn points out a piece from his 2008 monochromatic series. Djimon Hounsou. It is much more than a black painting, with a subtle texture and a brilliance that are tangible to us.

Daniela Palitos and Roslyn Oxley with Dale Franks's Djimon Hounsou (2008)

I also saw two of Frank’s most recent works and, let me tell you, they are as enigmatic and majestic as they look in the film. There are wounds erupting from the surface in thick golden paint, micro-patterns spread throughout the composition, explosions of colour that overlap each other, a collection of electric-blue circles that are a clear example of its experimental work. As we come closer, the Perspex reflective nature of its support alters our view, giving another dimension to the artwork as we are invited in to become part of it.

Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie is more than a portrait of an artist. It celebrates the man behind it all and empowers younger generations to succeed through resilience and dedication. The pain, isolation and life struggles bring us closer to Dale Frank in his most pure human condition and makes us long for more.

Find out more about Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie. Details: tix.cinefestoz.com/Events/Dale-Frank-Nobody-s-Sweetie/

Daniela Palitos has written this review as a participant through Seesaw’s Regional Mentoring Program.

Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie (2024). Directed by Jenny Hicks. Screened at CinefestOz.

Featured photo: Dale Frank – Nobody’s Sweetie, 2024 (still frame garden)