ARTIST EXHIBITS A FAMILIAR FACE
THERE’S a small amount of irony in the fact landscape photographer Steve Cooke’s first exhibition is a collaboration born of a series of portraits.
After taking some photos of Cairns resident Siobhan Barton at Stoney Creek one day, her mum, artist Sheran Barton, asked Mr Cooke if she could make some paintings from the images Mr Cooke had captured.
Siobhan came up with the idea of the two exhibiting
jointly – and Synergy came into being.
Officially opened at The Kite Gallery on February 4, the exhibition will run until February 25, with a closing evening to celebrate.
“I’ve been studying for a few years and shooting a lot, and then to have something tangible that people can come along to and actually see was really nice,” Mr Cooke said.
“(Sheran’s portraits) – she’s got an amazing style to her and she’s just incredibly good at portraits and the
backgrounds she put to the images I took. It felt like I’d achieved something very substantial and hopefully it’s the start of more to come.”
Mrs Barton said she loved mixing realism with a bit of abstraction and surrealism for her paintings.
“So I used (Mr Cooke’s) images but with other images as well, that I either made up or used from other source material. I just loved all of it, the whole painting process,” she said.
The Kite Gallery is located at 133 Grafton St, Cairns.