'Distant Horizons' @ Pikes gallery

For SALA (South Australian Living Artists) 2016, I was invited to exhibit with two other artists at the Pikes Winery gallery. The title of the exhibition is ‘Distant Horizons’ which is a reflection of the vastness of the Clare region with its diverse range of landscapes. In my mind, the title could also be interpreted as a metaphor of the journey of the artist…heading into unknown territory while moving toward an illusionary end point that never really comes.

The other artists in the exhibition are Merek Herburt and Jim Cook. Each of us have very different styles and interpretations of our regional environment, which makes the exhibition particularly interesting.  Indeed, curator Cathy Pike was very keen to display the works along side each other in order to emphasise this striking contrast. With each of the 30 landscapes on show, each of us have been selective in our vision and have taken something unique from what we have observed.

The Clare Valley has a way of inspiring artists through its subject matter, colour and light and through out  SALA month there will be many artists who will be displaying there own interpretation of this unique region in a series of local exhibitions that should be well worth visiting.

Exhibition at Annie’s Lane

I was recently invited to mount an exhibition of works in the gallery space at Annie’s Lane winery. This is a wonderful venue as it not only located in picturesque Watervale, in the heart of the Clare Valley, but the gallery space is situated within the beautiful, heritage listed Quelltaler Estate. The century old cellar provided the ideal venue for my paintings as many of them depict aspects of this historical wine growing region.

This exhibition of paintings was been inspired by the unique landscape of the mid-north of South Australia, capturing both its vastness and the beautiful details that can be seen within this natural environment. While the subject matter is very much inspired by the Clare Valley, the works also reflect much about my exposure to art in Europe and Asia over the past six years, in particular the use of light. These works continued my exploration of traditional oil painting techniques used to depict the changing nature of the local landscape and its timeless qualities.

The exhibition was opened to coincide with annual Clare Valley gourmet weekend, which again saw over 5000 visitors descend upon the region to enjoy the best of local food and wine. Hopefully, some of them they took time out to have a look at the works on display, if not the exhibition will be open daily over the next couple of months.

The 2016 Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize

The Adelaide Park Lands Art Prize is a biennial event organised by the Adelaide City Council to celebrate the city and its wonderful natural environment that remains an integral aspect of its design. Launched in 2014, this art prize is open to all artists, working in 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art forms including photography, so the works on show are particularly varied, all inspired by various aspects of our unique parklands.

This year I was fortunate to have a painting selected for the exhibition and attended the opening at the Adelaide Festival Centre. It was great to see the event so well attended, with the quality of the creative works on show reinforcing our common passion for the subject matter. Both John Schumann and Ian Gilfillan added further gusto to the evening when opening the exhibition, both expressing their ongoing support of our parklands and the role of the visual arts in celebrating them.

Congratulations must go the Nick Mount as this year’s overall winner, with a beautifully crafted piece, ‘Wakefield and East: A Still Life’, but also to all of the 59 artists who contributed to a truly impressive and diverse exhibition.

Watercolour Impressions

One of the great supporters of the visual arts in the Clare Valley is Pikes winery, which has a lovely little gallery upstairs, above the cellar door. Proprietor Cathy Pike continues to introduce a range new and interesting exhibition to the region, reaffirming the long-standing relationship between wine and art.

I recently attended an exhibition of ‘Watercolour Impressions’ by Alan Ramachandran, which proved to be an enlightening reflection upon an artist’s process of working. During the opening of the exhibition Alan chose to depart from the traditional artist speech by expressing his thought processes through demonstration.  It must be said that for an artist this is a particularly brave option, as there are obvious time factors and the possibility of it all going wrong under the pressure of public gaze. However, Alan’s years of experience, combined with his relaxed and jovial nature enabled it to all go off without a hitch. Within just over half an hour he had effectively led the audience through his choice of composition, tonal values and brush techniques to arrive at a suitably impressive sample of his landscape style.

While watercolour is generally not my chosen medium, I have often used this technique particularly while traveling. With a small watercolour kit, it allows you to set up quickly to produce an image with a delicate sense of immediacy. In his demonstration Alan showed this to great effect as well as providing insights into a few of his own particular tricks of the trade. As he said, ‘it’s all about sharing’ and he certainly shared much about his passion for watercolour over a glass of wine on a very pleasant Sunday afternoon.

‘Sunlight & Sentinels’ Exhibition

After putting in plenty of hours of studio time over the past few months, my recent collection of paintings were ready to be exhibited at Claymore Wines for SALA 2015. In the end, I managed to surpass my expectations by producing 34 works. I eventually entitled the exhibition ‘Sunlight and Sentinels', as it seemed to encapsulate the spirit of the pieces to be displayed. The term ‘sentinel’ can be defined as a ‘person or object that watches or stands as if watching over someone or something’. The tenure of sentinels can vary; from a fleeting moment of human occupation to that of a silent monument that remain steadfastly vigilant in its fixed position. The landscape of the mid-north of South Australia provided me with plenty of examples of such temporary and generational artifacts that have become a recognisable presence across this region.

The exhibition opening was a great chance to meet members of the local art community while Chrissy and her team at Claymore Wines were also hugely supportive, both during the set-up and on the night. I was pleased that much of the subject matter and figurative elements were recognisable to the viewers and that the work evoked such interesting discussion. Likewise the generous feedback was much appreciated. The exhibition remains open throughout August and so hopefully there will be plenty of other visitors, in addition to family and friends, over the next few weeks.

Myself and Chrissy Van Der Jeugd from Claymore Wines

An Exhibition on the Horizon

I didn’t anticipate that I would have the time or the body of work for an exhibition in the first year of living in the Clare Valley. There was so much to be done, not the least of which was actually setting up my studio. However, that notion would soon change after a chance meeting with Chrissy Van Der Jeugd from Claymore Wines. During a casual conversation while enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon of wine tasting, it was suggested that it might be possible to hold an exhibition at the winery during SALA (South Australian Living Artists) month, is an event that encourages over a thousand local artists throughout the state to exhibit their works in August each year. While feeling somewhat ill prepared at the time, the opportunity was simply too good to resist. Knowing that there were a few months of production time ahead and with Chrissy’s encouragement, the challenge was now on! Using the mid-north region of South Australia as my inspiration, I would aim to produce around 25 paintings that would reflect upon the relationship between the mid-north environment and those who watch over it. This would also allow me to personally connect with our new home through both its landscape and man-made artifacts from both the past and present that can often be seen throughout the region.