Jeff Rigby was born in Sydney in 1948 and graduated from the National Art School in 1984. In 1985 he gained a Diploma of Education at Sydney Teachers College.

In 1975 Rigby had his first one man show at The Bonython Gallery in Sydney and in 1976 he exhibited at The Macquarie Galleries, beginning a long association lasting until the closure of The Macquarie Galleries in 1993. During this time he had ten one man shows and participated in many group shows.

Rigby then exhibited with The Australian Galleries, was represented by Stella Downer and has been represented by Robin Gibson Galleries since 1998

He has a strong interest in architecture and industrial landscape and machinery which is offset by a long standing love of landscape, working in the mediums of gouache, acrylic, oil, coloured pencil and charcoal. He inherited his love of the environment, built or otherwise, together with his love of objective painting and drawing from his parents, Alan and Enid Rigby who were commercial artists and early conservationists.

His interest in ships was aided and abetted by his father and fuelled by boyhood memories of Sydney Harbour in the 1950s and 60s when it was still one of the great working seaports of the world.

This interest includes a love of sailing ships, also passed on by his father, who remembered Sydney as a young man when commercial sail was very much a reality. During the 1980s, Jeff sailed much of the east coast of Australia, including a number of passages on the brigantine “ Eye of the Wind.”

Jeff has also been a teacher of painting and drawing in a number of TAFE Art Schools but principally at Meadowbank College, from 1976 to 2004 and now teaches at The National Art School. He now lives and works in the Blue Mountains and is represented by the Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney.

Jeff’s work can be found in the collections of the Art Gallery of New south Wales, The State Library of New South Wales, Parliament House Canberra, Manly Art Gallery, Launceston Art Galley, Rockhampton Art Gallery, The Australiana Fund, The Sydney City Council and many private collections.