When Sid Fort first tried to discuss Ottorino Respighi and the Pines of Rome with me, he might as well have been talking about a fashion designer with a new after shave rather than an inspirational composer who was leading a renaissance in Italian music.
Sid was trying to show me how to recognise the source of all things inventive and creative. He introduced me to the music of Puccini, Gershwin, Sibelius, Copland and other 20th Century composers, but I took little notice.
My world then was confined to the picture captured in the television camera lens and transmitted into little boxes, a world with vision so blinkered that it saw and heard only rock and roll.
Sid, by contrast, saw - indeed, sees - the world as a giant canvas ablaze with the colours of music, mythology, ancient and modern culture, natural beauty and the female form.
It had room for rock and roll, comedy, classical and modern music, modern and classical art, pop music, for "sunshine, lollipops and rainbows; everything that's wonderful".
Sid offered me the key to open the door into his wider and greater world and its sense of perspective. It is to my eternal shame that I waited too long to use it.
But it made me realise just how great this living legend is. None of us gets to choose our friends. Our friends choose us. I count it as my great fortune and am ever grateful that Sid chose me. What a privilege it has been! No, not just a privilege.
What an honour it has been! What an honour it is! An honour to know him, to love him and to be his friend. How lucky am I?
How lucky are we all to have been allowed to be part of his world?
Bandstand, Bobby Limb and baby boomers! They're all part of the legend of Sidney Fort, art director, set designer and artist extraordinaire. Publicly, Sid enjoyed the largest canvas for his visual wonderland, creating, inspiring and producing masterpieces of set design for thousands of shows with Channel Nine.
Privately, he has pursued a dream - creating masterpieces in watercolour that reflect his love of the body beautiful (especially the feminine form), the classics and the Classical and Ancient Worlds. And the mastery he exhibited in the artwork that was transmitted into millions of homes across Australia in Bandstand, Bobby Limb's Sound of Music and a host of other shows is more than matched by his artistry as a watercolourist.
Sid's lifetime passion for painting has manifested itself in hundreds of watercolour works of art - his naked women all with bodies to be worshipped, his landscapes vibrant in their colours and the stunning images inspired by his visits to Greece, alive with the eerie light of an ancient land.
Even now we are discovering uncatalogued works - including some he painted in Morotai in New Guinea in 1945. Many of Sid's works have never been seen by anyone other than the great man himself. That is, until now.
A selection of about 100 of his best works, representing only a fraction of Sidney Fort's magnificent oeuvre, is displayed on this one night only show, "A Life in Watercolour" so that we can all pay tribute to the legend himself.
Young Sidney is 86 now and living in retirement. But he's Still the One.
He is an exceptional person. His legacy to television design is indisputable.
His contribution to the world of watercolour art is immense. His depth of knowledge is astounding. His modesty is endearing. And his friendship is indeed a privilege.
This website www.sidneyfort.com.au is dedicated to Sid Fort. It is our small way of saying "thank you" to him and paying tribute to his genius, his art, his scholarship, his humanity and, most of all, his friendship.
By Warwick Freeman
