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Hi grabbed this watercolour today without looking at artist mainly because I liked it. Question is i was doing some searching and found a sydney beare who was an Anzac. On the back has location of subject I would say his name and pt Neill stud (I think ) have compared written name and must say they are pretty close imo any opinions on the back and the signature happy to hear thanks chris

 

More likely this person - Sydney Robert Beare - buried in the Cemetry at Port Neill. Died in 2015 aged 85 so born well after the First World War.
http://www.tumbybay.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=174&c=8002

 

To clarify: the soldier's full name was Sydney Alva Beare, while the picture is inscribed "SR Beare" on the reverse. They were probably related, as Sydney Alva Beare seems to have had connections with Port Neill.
https://rslvirtualwarmemorial.org.au/explore/people/124589

 

Outstanding thanks architrave my searches didn't come close to that and port Neill now makes complete sense might do some more investigating fantastic chris

 

It's a shot in the dark, and I wish I could find the actual building, but perhaps Marble Hill is here:

http://marblehill.com.au/about/history/

 

And 49 minutes away from Port Neill is Cowell South Australia. The landscape of this painting definitely has the same feel as the coast of Cowell.

 

A pioneering house on the Cleve Cowell Hills on the Eyre Peninsula

http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/4be1ad063...cowell-hills-on-the-eyre-peninsula-b4nnpt.jpg

 

Above and beyond thank you mrnate awesome to know where it was painted.

 

I know this is an old thread:

Syd was my great uncle (Sydney Alva was his dad) and did lots of these types of paintings and drawings, mostly around Port Niell. He was a member of the Port Neill Art Group, think he may have been president at one point. He was great fun to be around with an awesome sense of humor.

In his own words:

I was born at Tumby Bay Hospital, where old Dr. Wibberley was the doctor at the time. For the first five years of my life we lived at the Carrow Wells home where Grandpa Kemp and family lived before taking over the Port Neill Hotel with Mr Feorge. Grandpa Kemp died at the age of 42. All I can remember of the Carrow home was at three years old getting hooked up on a barb wire fence and Buck Chalmers rescuing me.

We moved to our new home on Windy Hill in the centre of the farm where my son David now lives. The solid old house was built of limestone and cost 150 pounds. My sister, Thea, and I walked to school picking up Lorna Harrowfield (Hauber) on the way. The school was on a stony hill overlooking the sea. We were a battered bunch of kids as the playground was solid limestone. Mr. Bracken was my first teacher. The main hobby other than schoolwork was making snotty gobble balls. Chalmers always made the biggest. We also used to collect wings from the harvest beetles.

On the farm my main job was to get the cows in to be milked by my mother and cutting mallee stumps for the fire. We looked forward to the movies at the Hall. I can remember being scared of King Kong the gorilla. Being Catholic we went to Mass once a month either at Byrnes place or in the Hall. Dancing after football was another social event. Well, that was my childhood. There was no TV: what did we do then, I don’t know but we had a wonderful time. During our teen years there was quite a mob of young fellows who went around together until some moved away and the rest who stayed, married.

I married Marlene Griffin of Lipson and had three children, Christine, David and Angela, all born in Tumby Bay.