THE late artist Guenter Kaminski may have been little known outside his Port Stephens community but his collected works reveal a life devoted to art and the natural environment.
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He left a big collection when he died and tomorrow the works will be on show and for sale at Salamander Bay.
Described as a man with an underlying sadness in his life but a love of people and the Australian bush, Mr Kaminski died in 2012, aged 82.
Friend Margaret Lamond said one of the works combined his skill as a stained glass creator, a poet and lover of the Australian Outback.
It is a multi-panelled work depicting Dorothea Mackellar’s poem I Love a Sunburnt Country, in which he has etched the first verse.
Mr Kaminski was born in what was then East Germany and migrated to Australia in 1950.
Mrs Lamond, who with her husband cared for Mr Kaminski, said he was raised by an aunt and his grandmother.
He did not know his father, she said.
‘‘He always said he was loved but never belonged.
‘‘There was an underlying sadness but he enjoyed life and people,’’ Mrs Lamond said.
Mr Kaminski worked in graphic design for Australian and German publishers and when he returned to live in Australia permanently, he opened a studio.
The collection includes sketchbooks, poems, paintings and about 30 stained glass pieces, many depicting birds.
The proceeds go to the Uniting Church’s Frontier Services, which helps people in the outback, the aged and children.
The sale is at the Port Stephens Uniting Church, Salamander Way, Salamander Bay from 10am tomorrow.
