However, in the hands of Maher the familiar becomes abstracted and played with but always holds true to a sense of place, who we are and how we live our lives in public. 

A 1985 graduate of the University of Newcastle, Maher’s works have always held Newcastle in their heart.

“Some of the earlier works I did out of art school, I did do lots of drawings up on the hill of the harbour, I like that grand scale of things,” he said.

“Looking out at the horizon, in those days we would have something like 80 ships. There was a lot.

“I started to assemble those ships like a still life on a table top.”

Maher’s day job saw him teaching art in school, but in 2001 he quit and retrained in urban design, something which has influenced his work.

“People say they can see that,” he said. “It’s about people in public places and how people use that space, and about the change in architecture.”

Maher’s art-making has always been based in drawing. He sketches the scenes of Newcastle and returns to his studio where he plays with the landscape and the people within it. 

His most recent works take well-known locations across the city and “play around with them”.

“It’s abstracted, I play around with the geometry, but it’s identifiable,” he said. 

For the past five or six years many of his works have involved outdoor boxing and fitness classes.

“I want to draw the figure in these landscapes,” he said. “I was drawing what I saw and those things really struck a chord, not just me but with an audience.

“It is something about them which coins something of our time. It says different things about what we want to do in public and what we want to do in private.”

Maher has exhibited in Newcastle, Sydney and Paris over 30 years.

He is the current recipient of the Mornington Shire Artist in Residence program.