As one of Australia's most famous contemporary landscape artists, Robert Juniper has had a career spanning more than 60 years, but at age 82 he's not showing any signs of slowing down.
As part of Australia Day celebrations, Juniper has been appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his service to the visual arts.
"I'm very chuffed, it's the most important award I've received," he told AAP. Juniper says that statement does not lessen the honour of his other awards, but says an AM is important recognition of being an Australian.
"I love my country and I'm very much in tune with the landscape," he said.
Born in the West Australian wheatbelt town of Merredin in 1929, Dr Robert Litchfield Juniper studied commercial art and industrial design at Beckenham School of Art in England.
He returned to WA in 1949 and since 1974 has devoted himself full-time to painting, sculpting and printmaking.
Juniper's work can be found in all major Australian public collections and around the world including the US, Asia and Europe.
"It's beyond any dreams I had when I was a student at art school," he said.
Despite his success, Juniper still lives in the same place as for the past 60 years in Perth's eastern hills.
"I don't paint my surroundings because the hills are too green for me, but I like urban country," he said. "I also like goldmining towns.
They provide the most inspiration for me." Juniper has received many accolades for his work including the Wynne Prize in 1976 and 1980.
For his services to the arts, he was awarded a WA Week Council's Citizen of the Year award in 1979 and an honorary doctorate from the University of WA in 1984.
In 1998, he was named an inaugural State Living Treasure and in 2003 received the Centenary Medal. With all his achievements, Juniper is not easing up, having completed what he calls his career highlight, working on the seven-metre-tall stained-glass windows at Bunbury Cathedral, south of Perth.
The cathedral was devastated by a tornado in 2005 and Juniper spent 18 months working on the designs. "It has Biblical themes with Australian flora and fauna," he said.
