Introduction
Charles William Bush (23 November 1919 – 13 November 1989) was an Australian painter.
History
Bush was born in North Carlton, Melbourne, a son of signwriter Andrew Charles Thomas Bush (born 1898), and Alice MaudBush née Rohsburn (died 21 April 1936)
He was educated at the newly-opened Coburg East School and during this time his four-year-old brother was struck by a car and killed in 1929 while the pair were crossing Bell Street, Coburg. Bush attended Coburg High School to age 14, then began studying art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) school. It may have been around this time that Bush started working at his father's business; his mother died a few years later, in 1936.
The relationship with his father (who also had the responsibility of another son, Reginald George Bush (c. 1929 – 12 November 1950)) became strained, so Bush left home to live at Essendon with the parents of fellow-student Phyllis Paulina Waterhouse (1917–1989). The two young artists later rented a studio and began living together; it proved to be a long-term relationship and they eventually married, on 21 June 1979.
Bush was called up for National Service, with the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) 1941–1943, then transferred to the 2nd AIF as sergeant as war artist with the Army Historical Unit 1943–1946.
In 1949 he received a British Council grant which took him to London, where he studied under Bernard Meninsky then exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1951
He was appointed teacher of drawing at the NGV school in 1954
He compered a weekly television program, My Fair Lady or My Lady Fair
In 1962 he co-founded (retired 1972) Leveson Street Gallery in North Melbourne, with Phyl Waterhouse and June Davies.
He was art critic for The Australian 1966