Trevor Dickinson, known for his drawings of Canberra’s iconic Clem Cummings’ bus stops, returns to the capital with his newest exhibition, Canberra (and other places), on display at Novotel Hotel’s First Edition Bar until 16 April.

The exhibition is part of the Canberra Comedy Festival, celebrating the observational nature of the craft. Dickinson says he always looks for humour in the streets, his work full of details he finds funny during his explorations. One that stands out to him is the ‘wrong way, go back’ sign.

“That, with Parliament House in the background, kind of has so many different meanings you can put into it; that was perfect, getting a good juxtaposition,” he smiles.

Dickinson originally started creating the bus shelter artworks as a way to get out of the house while in Canberra for an artist-in-residence program at Megalo Print Studio. Locals suggested there might still be a few around. He discovered there are actually 500 – and he visited all of them when creating the works.

“If you go to a foreign city and you’re there for the first time, you notice stuff that people don’t always notice if they live there,” he says.

A similar method was applied when the artist moved to Newcastle, where he embarked on a project to draw 100 letterboxes.

“I work at home as a freelancer and I was in Australia, listening to English radio and stuff, and I just needed to get out and so that was a brilliant way; it just made me go around the streets.”

The novelty of letterboxes drew Dickinson in; not having them in England, he found the project as something interesting and different. While the Newcastle project got him started with zines and prints, it was his work here in Canberra that really got him started, becoming pretty much his full-time job. Dickinson says he found the city to be worth drawing and an interesting place to be, with people moving in and out constantly.

“I just wanted to do a portrait of Canberra to cover as many suburbs as I could. Because a lot of times there’s no reason to go out there because there’s just residential, but with these [suburbs], I can go to anywhere and it’s still very Canberra,” he says.

The Newcastle letterboxes feature in the exhibition, as do two other projects, based in Taree and Maitland in NSW. Commissioned by a gallery, the artist spent a year and a half drawing the parts of Maitland that inspired him; a similar project took him to the NSW mid north coast.

“Taree is very Australian but it’s not cliched’ – lots of corrugated iron and lots of ’80s brickwork; it was very inspiring.”

Dickinson says he tried to start a project in Sydney, but struggled to get a gallery or shop on board. Those he approached saw it more as a tourist item than art, whereas he believes most of his work is appreciated by the locals of the area. Places like Canberra and Newcastle have the right size population to be able to appreciate work from different suburbs, whereas in a metropolis like Sydney, residents are too far removed from other neighbourhoods.

With the exhibition not being hung in a traditional gallery, the organisers and artist have been able to make the space their own and use it in a fun way. Boards and prints of all different sizes take over the bar, hotel lobby, and stairwell.

“I’ve got this whole other creative life that isn’t really seen in Canberra. So I thought I would show like pretty much stuff from my whole career since I’ve been drawing in Australia, which is later than 12 years now,” he says.

One wall displays the artist’s work chronologically, from his artworks in Canberra, all the way up to the images for Old Parliament House’s Enlighten display this year.

A Q&A with the artist at Novotel Canberra on 22 March is your chance to ask questions about him and his works such as: “what was the person who wrote the beloved Pauline Hanson line like?”

Have a feeling you might be the best-looking person in Canberra? Visit the exhibition and grab a shot of yourself in one of Dickinson’s bus stop murals, post it to social media and go in the running to win some great prizes. You could nab a night at the Novotel, artwork signed by Trevor Dickinson, tickets to a ComedyACT show, or wine from Contentious Character.

Catch the bus stops and more in Canberra (and other places) at Novotel Canberra until 16 April; canberracomedyfestival.com.au

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