In 1993, in his third solo exhibition at Niagara Galleries in Melbourne, John Kelly showed a series of paintings inspired by the wartime experiences of artist William Dobell. Dobell "served first as a camouflage labourer... He was one of a group of several, later famous, artists who had been ordered to make papier mache cows and move them around the base in the hope of fooling Japanese pilots".

Kelly himself was a talented young artist. One of seven children of English migrants, he was only able to attend art school after his mother entered a Win a Wish competition on the side of a milk carton. Prior to the recognition bought by Dobell's Cows, as the series became known, he was...