The program starts with a look at Whiteley's studio — a Pandora's Box in which there are clues to his free-ranging talent. He talks of being "born with a gift" and the desire to test and abuse that gift, to enhance it with addiction but ultimately to share it. Whiteley is seen at a huge blank canvas as he makes the first strokes. During the film this work reaches completion. The artist talks of eroticism - the major driving force behind his painting and one of the themes of the film. The landscapes of Byron Bay, Sydney Harbour, Oberon, and Tuscany dissolve between reality and his paintings. The film-makers travel with him and his girlfriend to London where he makes a drawing in a London cab. He then visits the Chamber of Horrors at Madam Tussaud's and talks of his Christie series of paintings. Whiteley's greatest influence is Francis Bacon and in the film he embarks on a major portrait ultimately destined for the Archibald Prize competition.

A visual journey into the life and legacy of one of Australia's most celebrated artists, Brett Whiteley.

SUNSHINE CITY is Albie Thom’s sprawling, protoplasmic experimental portrait of his hometown of Sydney. The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia call it “a structured diary film which investigates the process of living in Sydney, which uses a repeating light modulation to intensify experiences of light, heat, colour”.

This short film by Frank Eidlitz shows a snippet of Australian artist Brett Whiteley at home with his wife Wendy and daughter Arkie. It was likely filmed in late 1966 or early 1967, before the Whiteleys moved to New York in late 1967. The film shows the artist and his family at home in the evening, reading the newspaper and watching television. Whiteley’s paintings line the walls of the living space, including ‘Fidgeting with Infinity’ (1966), a large triptych painting that dominates the space.