May 2018 Group Exhibition
The Human Landscape
RHONDA GRAY
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The ‘WATER SURFACE” series arises from the observation of often-overlooked moments of reflected, absorbed or suffused light as it plays upon or through the medium of water; most especially when it enfolds the form of a clothed human figure.
Though partly naturalist in style my paintings embody an appreciation of painterly surfaces and tonal arrangement. Rhonda uses robust compositions that generate strong optical impact - they contain and convey visual energy, use attractive negative space and bring into play interesting shapes with strong tonal contrasts. |
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EMMA NIEHOF
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I have an intuitive approach to colour and composition, keeping in mind the importance of ‘light’ and telling a story. My work is influenced by the work of great artists such as Fred Williams, Gary Miles and John Olson.
The Australian landscape is my inspiration, contrasting strongly with the country I grew up in. My paintings are the result of a combination of planning and spontaneity, always allowing for wonderful things to emerge in the process. Layers of paint obscure and reveal simultaneously, enhancing colours and shapes. Inspiration is found in the diverse palettes of the land: the vibrant reds and ochres of the outback, the lush greens of far-north Queensland and the seasonal, changing colours of Victoria and Tasmania. I often see something ‘different’ in vistas such as quarries, cliffs and hills, resulting in landscapes that focus on colour and interpretation rather than real-life accuracy. The viewer is invited to ‘travel’ through the layered landscape with abstracted trees, bushes and rocks; to take a journey, enjoying the sights along the way – toward a striking horizon. The signatures on the artwork are the initials GON, the first letters of Emma’s Dutch maiden name: Germa Oude Nijeweme. This has always been the signature on the artwork, starting more than 20 years ago. |
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MONIKA FEUERSTEIN
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“Inner Sanctum” Primarily working in Oils, my art is figurative realism with a hint of surrealism. My art is about desires, aspirations and dreams. The threads of light and darkness too. My paintings evolve usually to what’s happening in my life at the time. Inspired by emotions or observations of the world around me. I like to tell stories in a metaphoric visual sense and express the rhythm and beat of life. The viewer may relate to them in their own way with their interpretations. |
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ALDO BELLEMO
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This May Exhibition is a preamble of my solo exhibition in October. Melbourne is a city which never stop changing demographically and physically. I want to capture and celebrate these moments of change otherwise they will be lost for ever. Besides, the extraordinary shapes and colours of the new buildings next to the classical details of the old create surrealistic images. And that's what my art is all about: to narrate the story of Melbourne, past and present, and the single person or persons in the picture provide the narrative and title of the painting. |
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BARBARA BATEMAN
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Barbara Bateman is a Melbourne artist who draws and paints the natural environment from her bush and seaside property on the Great Ocean Road near Lorne and in many other places. Her paintings are autobiographical and deeply personal. They record her memories, imagination and emotional states. Barbara engages physically with the immediate environment in a “plein-air” tradition, to paint a “sensed reality” of what she sees in front of her rather than a representational or descriptive view of the landscape. Barbara’s paintings are an expression of her internal memories and intimate understanding of the place. In a sense Barbara’s paintings reflect her inner consciousness. They are less about what is seen “out there” and more about that reality of the “subjective experience”. Her figures, bush and sea subjects and colours, forms and textures are symbolic of her understanding of our human condition in God’s creation. The ‘Bush’ and ‘Sea’ as represented in Barbara’s paintings reflect the wilderness and the harshness of the natural environment and yet at the same time a place of solitude and reflection. Within the wilderness there is a space for tranquillity, for serenity, for calm and quietness and that is the space within which we might discover the divine in both the disorder and order, in the loudness and the silence, in the dark and the light, in that which is dead and also that which is living. Nature is a manifestation of the divine. Human life is inextricably woven into the rest of creation. |
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CRAIG HARRISON
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What these works have in common is an exploration of the question of identity. The masked figures allude to the dichotomy between an individual’s public and private selves: the mask revealing a particular self to the world while, at the same time, concealing its wearer’s “true” or “authentic” one.
They also raise the issue of identity as a performance, the mask as something that can be put on or taken off at will. The masked figures are, tellingly, set amidst images of the natural world. Just as we put our stamp on, or mould, our natural environment so we shape our public self. Despite their spare contexts and seemingly uncontrived, frontal poses, the portraits reveal no more of the sitters’ “authentic” and private selves than do the masked figures. They are, instead, fictive identities imagined, interpreted and constructed by the artist |
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MARY RAPHAEL
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...the burnt sienna land and the cobalt blue sea, become the inspiration to create... to dream... to visit... ...the burnt brown land and the cobalt blue sea,are being brought to life by color and texture and a variety of techniques,that appears out of worldly and spiritual. My art expresses peace,energy and tranquility, which flows through me when confronted by the magnificence of our landscape. In my paintings, I relive the energy and spirituality,the mystique, the enormity and the uniqueness of our land. |
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