Harley Cameron Griffiths was born on 18th April 1908 in Sydney. His father was also a fine painter, who attended the National Gallery School in Melbourne from 1896 to 1899, and he encouraged his son to follow his natural instincts.

As a young man he went to New Zealand with his father where he worked as the Government Photographer for the Department of Internal Affairs. On returning to Victoria his principal art training was under A.D. Colquhoun at his studio and school in little Collins Street, Melbourne c1929-1932. It was “Archie” Colquhoun’s teaching of the important aspect of tonal values that gave Griffiths the foundation for his art.

Griffiths held his first one-man exhibition at the Sedon Galleries, Melbourne in 1933. The exhibition consisted of just under 50 pictures in oils and watercolours and provoked favourable reviews.

Griffiths continued showing in solo and joint exhibitions up until the 1970’s.

He played an active role in the Twenty Melbourne Painters’ Society during the following years:
1954-55 Associate Member
1956-59 and 1963-1981 Full Member

From 1950 to 1977 Griffiths worked as the Conservator/Consultant to the National Gallery of Victoria.

On painting trips abroad in 1950, 1955, 1960 and 1968 extensive areas of Europe were covered. Griffiths worked on a relatively small scale, sketching nature where it interested him. These landscapes give the idea of a place or an effect rather than its exterior appearance. When in France he worked along the French Riviera as well as in Bretenoux, Dinant, Honfleur and in Paris.

When painting interior scenes Griffiths built on the great tradition where a realistic approach to nature and the intimacy of the interiors was emphasized. All his “interiors” are peopled. Their presence proclaims that human beings belong in the natural order. They are not enacting any scene from history or mythology as Griffiths avoided any hint of literary or anecdotal comment in his work and always avoided anything verging on the sentimental.

Sir William Dargie, a student of A.D. Colquhoun at the same time as Griffiths, wrote:
“I was attracted by the single-mindedness and natural simplicity of his paintings. He strove for absolute, not relative, tonal and colour values. To achieve this goal, he placed his canvas as close as possible to the subject in a comparable degree of illumination and then, from a viewing distance of about 10-12 feet, matched in paints on his canvas the colours and tones of his subject. This sounds simple; it is, in fact, very difficult to do.”