Local habitat proves inspiring
IT IS comforting for a cohort of artists to have the support and shared experience offered by a group exhibition, but seizing the opportunity for a solo show, while rewarding, can be a little scary.
It is also a brave act to put one’s skills and vulnerabilities on the line and invite public validation.
Three local and regional artists have embraced the privilege to present solo exhibitions that profile their creative practices.
The Culliford Gallery at the Toowoomba Art Society, 1 Godsall Street, is hosting A Sense of Place, an exhibition by Rosalie Eustace.
Subject matter is drawn from the local habitat on her property at Palmtree, north of Toowoomba.
Foliage and ferns reflect the rainforest, walnut studies show the produce farmed, and doves and pigeons attest to the prolific bird life.
The artist has also produced a book which contains reproductions of the paintings in the exhibition as well as including information about the wildlife and the endangered ecosystems.
Palmtree is steeped in local history and there are also stories of the bullock teams and the Munro Tramway that passed through Eustace’s property carrying timber from the sawmills.
The mixed media paintings certainly convey a sense of place and the artist’s response to her immediate environment.
The long, narrow, vertical format presented in starkly bold black frames suggest the glowing, preliminary studies for stained glass installations.
Eustace has captured the symmetry and patterns of nature translated in bright colours and softly muted tones.
Works such as The Old Pear Tee, Bougainvillea, Tomato 1, and Paper Daisy, with their cropped focus and detail, could be wallpaper samples in the manner of William Morris.
A selected range of works is available as limited-edition prints.
The Perinet Gallery at the
Art Society is showing A Touch of Paint, the first solo exhibition by Sheryl Fainges.
The paintings explore texture and technique in confident colour arrangements that include the still life Tulips in a vase, flower studies, reef and under water scenes, and a richly surfaced cityscape.
A Note of interest: Watercolour Beginnings, a course offered by local artist Bruce Griffiths commences Friday, July 15 at the Toowoomba Art
Society. Phone 0403 346 229 for details.
The Crows Nest Gallery is featuring the work of photographer Judi Neumann.
The exhibition Impressions, combines views from nature with interpretive responses translated through applied technology.
Light shapes an abstract statement about location with digital manipulation and movement captured in flurries of colour, line, and tonal harmonies.
In-camera raw image files retain recorded data which is then transformed into a personal vision.
Neumann also uses multiple exposures to fold scenes into parallel universes that float in a fathomless netherworld.
Digital prints on metallic paper become psychic patterns that boil and bubble in a techno cauldron of colour and implied texture.