Art celebrates natural world
LOCAL and regional group and solo exhibitions celebrate our natural world in colourful imagery that welcomes spring but also acknowledges the celestial universe and subtle seasonal changes.
The Culliford and Perinet Galleries at the Toowoomba Art Society, 1 Godsall Street, are presenting the society members’ annual Spring Award Exhibition.
This eagerly awaited show consists predominantly of paintings which could be up to one square metre and created in any media.
Although it would seem the choice of imagery is open, there is a disappointing predictability about the work.
Still life studies depict an abundance of spring blossoms and are accompanied by their traditional companions of landscape and portraiture, with animals being a favourite subject.
Arranging the variety of works, the different approaches, sizes, and colour choices into a successfully coherent exhibition design was a challenge met with style and vision by the installation team.
Despite the quantity, the works are spaciously presented and allow for individual appreciation. The Anne and Fred Gardiner Award was won by Betty Searle for Home among the gum trees.
Terese Eglington won the Nancy Culliford Award with Tranquil hideaway, and the Harry Hart Award was won by Deidre Rutherford’s Renewal.
The Patron’s Choice was awarded to Vivienne Boland for Autumn woods.
Other points of interest include Susanne Schmidt’s elegant assemblage, the gestural confidence in Kate Civil’s Empire Theatre, a sense of immediacy in the tree study by Dean Doneley, the formality of Eddie Gunn’s shelf still-life, and Marcia Ruhle’s glossy black dog.
The Art Society is open for extended hours during the month of carnival: Tuesday-Friday 10am-2pm, Saturday-Sunday 10am-6pm, Sunday, October 3: 10am-4pm.
The Warwick Art Gallery
is hosting Proximities, an ambitious solo exhibition by local artist, Amelia Willmer.
The gallery and the foyer present a vast space to fill yet this has been cleverly managed by featuring discrete groupings of works linked by themes in which the notion of proximity is relative.
The diversity and difference in the source material invite distinct treatments of subject.
The galactic universe series is dramatically expressive.
The seascapes veer from the tranquillity of Pegasus to the almost apocalyptic in Storm’s end.
Mood and movement are effectively evoked in Constellation and Gust, while the muted palette of the landscapes emphasises the deep and shallow spatial play between proximity and distance.
The Orange Wall Gallery at the Warwick Art Gallery is featuring Seasons of the Southern Downs, an exhibition by members of the Allora Photography Club.
The artists have captured mood and seasonal resonance through colour and tone in which the pervasive power of light brings individual interpretations of harmony and balance to the compositions.
Memorable works include Rainbow Lorikeet by Joan Wylde, Saddle Top by Victor Iverson, Autumn in Stanthorpe by Glenda Guy, and Family Gathering, Condamine River by Gale Ward.