Clifton Ernest Pugh AO (17 December 1924 – 14 October 1990) was an Australian artist and three-time winner of Australia's Archibald Prize.

[1] One of Australia's most renowned and successful painters, Pugh was strongly influenced by German Expressionism, and was known for his landscapes and portraiture.

[8][12] Two years later, whilst living in Adelaide, he took evening classes in life drawing at the South Australian School of Arts and Crafts.

After serving in World War II, with the financial support of the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme, Pugh returned to Melbourne and enrolled in the National Gallery of Victoria Art School.

He read Sheldon Cheney's The Story of Modern Art (1941) while recuperating in hospital in New Guinea during World War II.

"[16] His training at the National Gallery School gave him a strong foundation in drawing and he learned the tonal painting technique, but when he took his teacher William (Bill) Dargie to see Sidney Nolan's Kelly and Dargie's attitude was dismissive, Pugh left the school to develop his own ideas.

[17] In 1951 Pugh bought 15 acres (61,000 m2) of bushland near Cottles Bridge, 50 kilometres (31 mi) northeast of Melbourne, which he named Dunmoochin.

[18][19] In order to protect and jointly control the area they formed the Dunmoochin Artists Co-operative with a constitution of 13 articles.

[3][28][29] Pugh held his first solo show in 1957 at the Victorian Artists Society Gallery, where he displayed landscapes and portraits.

[28] Col. Aubrey Gibson, chairman of the National Gallery, was an early patron, as were a group of businessmen led by David Yencken and the businessman Andrew Grimwade.

[4] Komon paid his artists a stipend, balanced against sales of their work, and this generosity made them very loyal, as it gave them stability and freedom from daily money worries.

[4][30][32] In 1966 Komon arranged a one-man show for Pugh at the Artists' Guild Gallery in St Louis in the United States;[30] The Commonwealth Institute staged a retrospective of his work in 1970.

Pugh established the Dunmoochin Foundation which now forms part of his legacy, and provides residences for artists in his bush property.