And while he is easily recognisable for his art, he is also as well-known for his generous philanthropic endeavours through which he has supported a range of cultural and community organisations, donating his artwork as well as providing financial contributions.

He has been involved in the visual arts since 1956 and during the late 1950s was part of the figurative art movement known as The Antipodeans, which paved the way for Australian art on the international scene. 

The Antipodean Manifesto was written by Bernard Smith, and was a protest against the “clamorous pretensions of the multitude of new converts to abstract expressionism and its varieties”.

The Antipodeans included Arthur Boyd, David Boyd, John Brack, Charles Blackman, Clifton Pugh, John Perceval and Mr Dickerson.

While he paints under the name Robert, to his family he is simply known as Bob.

The hardships he went through in the early years of his career are evident in his work; vulnerability, isolation, loneliness as well as humour are hallmarks of his paintings. 

His break as a professional artist came in 1954 when the National Gallery of Victoria purchased his work Man Asleep On The Steps. 

As the title of his book Against The Tide, written by his wife Jennifer, suggests, throughout his career he worked mostly against the tide – against public consensus, without approval or plaudits from the art bureaucracy and without government arts grants.

Leaving school at 14 he found employment in a variety of jobs including at a hinge factory and later as a boxer before joining the RAAF aged 18 when World War II broke out.

He served for the next four years and while waiting to be demobilised he read Somerset Maugham’s The Moon and the Sixpence and was inspired by that and the local East Indian children in Morotai that he would draw and paint.

These drawings were the beginning of his path of depicting people within their surroundings. 

“It was a wonderful time, the locals were so friendly and welcoming,” he said.

“I often sat and spoke to the older men, using tent canvas and camouflage paint to create works.

“The locals often paid me for the works with coconuts.”

He returned to Australia and despite struggling at times turned professional at 35 when he won £100 ($200) in the 1957 Australian Women’s Weekly fridge decorating competition. 

That allowed him to buy more art materials and extend his techniques. 

Throughout his career Mr Dickerson has been represented in numerous major national galleries and collections as well as holding over 120 solo exhibitions nationally and internationally. 

Since the early 1960s Mr Dickerson has supported a range of cultural and community organisations donating his artwork as well as providing financial contributions.

“I just like to be able to help people and in particular children’s organisations,” he said.

“I get requests for support all the time and we just try to support whatever we can.”

At 89, and still extremely fit, Mr Dickerson still walks at least six kilometres a day.

Paintings now may take a little longer than when he was younger but he is still prolific and his work much sought after.

“It was nothing to maybe turn out three works a month when I was younger, then it reduced to two now it may only be one, it depends on the subject matter if I’m enthused, it can all happen quickly,” he said.

“Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t – sometimes you make little errors that you have to fix.

“But there are still times when I can produce a painting in a couple of days.”

He mainly sketches and draws at his local property, the 225 acre Turpentine Park at Cambewarra and paints at his Sydney home.

His Shoalhaven sanctuary which has stunning uninterrupted views of the Cambewarra Mountain is also home to another of his passions – horse racing with local trainer Robbie Price having his training precinct on the property.

“I love racing and it has been very good to me it has allowed me at times to take time between producing artworks,” he said.