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... When Nick first joined us as an independent consultant the idea that a Macquarie Group Collection should symbolise the youthful enthusiasm of the organisation had already been established, but we lacked the input of someone outside the bank who actually knew what they were talking about when it came to young Australian artists - our objective being to concentrate mostly on works of those still developing their oeuvre. I was introduced one day in 1985 to that rather spare, distinguished, extremely likeable and self-effacing man with the infectious guffaw, and we agreed to meet to discuss the project.

Nick's enthusiasm for the infant collection was emphatic and contagious. It was in talking to Nick that we agreed on the theme of the landscape and  its psyche, its spirit of place. It was through him that I could actually see the vision splendid. It was Nick who breathed life into the framework...

I will always remember with great fondness the gallery visits with Nick - the serious business of selecting artworks, liberally laced with good humour. What fun we had. What a joy it was to do something so creative and interesting with someone so delightful - but especially to learn so much from someone who knew pretty much everything there was to know about the particular business we had embarked on ...

No doubt if we had appointed him as our curator we simply could have handed Nick the job of picking and hanging everything single-handedly. But that's not the way we wanted it and frankly neither did he. He wanted our involvement. He knew that as an adviser to the collection he would be able
to share his intimate knowledge with us, the committee, and we the committee would be required to engage in the process. Over all the years that followed this was the way it worked. Nick made us question our own opinions, to challenge each other and challenge convention. We looked to him for his wisdom and knowledge and he shared his precious gift of understanding the necessity of art as a way to provoke interest and stimulation, as distinct from accepting the bland and predictable ...

This article appears in excerpted form. You can read the entire article in Art & Australia's Winter 2010 issue.