Artist in Residence Handover

The occasion of SASR’s 60^th Anniversary was an appropriate time to acknowledge the changing of the guard in stewardship of the Unit’s pictorial history in artworks.

Renowned illustrator and artist Ian Coate became associated with the Regiment through his wife, who was a member of 152 Signals Squadron. During that period, Ian produced several artworks depicting various roles, tasks and skills undertaken by the Regiment and in the main, these works were gratis.

The SAS Association commissioned Ian to produce an artwork to commemorate the 50^th Anniversary of the formation of the Australian SAS in 2007.

In 2011, Ian was again commissioned to produce an artwork depicting the Regiment’s commitment to Afghanistan.

Shortly thereafter, the SAS Historical Foundation recruited Ian as a volunteer member and gave him the honorary title of ‘Artist in Residence’.

In 2013, a serving member of SASR approached the Historical Foundation with the idea of an art exhibition during the Regiment’s Golden Jubilee year in 2014.

While the Foundation was of the view that the idea was feasible, the reality was that any exhibition would be modest due to the number of art works owned by the Regiment.

Ian was extremely enthusiastic about an art exhibition and offered to contact his military artist peers across Australia to ascertain any interest in participation. The result of that exercise is that the Regiment now has one of the largest and most prestigious military art collections outside the Australian War Memorial.

The ‘Out of the Shadows’ art and artefacts exhibition was staged at the Western Australian Museum for 11 weeks in 2014 and was one of the Museum’s most successful short-term events with over 30,000 visitors.

Ian continued to provide us with additional works until 2023, when he reluctantly decided to relinquish his honorary position and concentrate on his income producing projects before being put out of business by the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence.

Thanks to Ian, the SASR Art Gallery is an important addition to the SASR History and Research Centre. The artworks inspirationally capture the essence of loss, sacrifice, separation, commitment, duty, and humour that are part of everyday life in the Regiment. The Gallery is a facility of which all members of the Regiment can be proud and has become a memorable experience for visitors to the SAS Historical Collection.

While crude drawings of enemy facilities have been the norm, throughout the Regiment’s history, there has always been members who are extremely artistically talented. To acknowledge this fact, the Historical Foundation invited Major S to assume the honorary position of “Artist in Residence.” Major S accepted and advised that he felt extremely honoured to be representing all the other serving and former member talented artists.

Major S has taken up the role enthusiastically and already produced artworks filling gaps in our pictorial history. At the rate he is going he will be as prolific as has Ian.