Clif Peir (b.1905) was a Sydney painter and teacher, who studied at the Julian Ashton School under Ashton and H.C.Gibbons. He was President of the Australian Art Society in 1951, and later a member of the Royal Art Society of NSW and the St George Art Society. From 1950 onward he travelled extensively in Central Australia, and throughout the sixties painted views of desert landscapes and Aboriginal people. In the early sixties he taught art at evening classes at Sutherland School, and also worked sporadically as an art critic for the Mirror newspaper group and a broadcaster for the BBC in London. However, his principal employment was producing advertising material for the Sydney County Council. He held many solo and group shows in Sydney from 1960 onward, and won municipal art awards in Kogarah, Campbelltown and Rockdale. In 1970 his work was featured in an 'Art Sale for Land Rights' at Paddington Town Hall with proceeds going to the New South Wales, Kimberley and North Queensland Aboriginal Land Councils. He is represented in the Art Gallery of New South Wales; the National Library; the Newcastle Art Gallery; the Howard Collection (Armidale); the Sutherland Shire Council; the National Bank in Adelaide; the Commonwealth Advisory Board; and in private collections in Australia and abroad.
