January 5 - 11, 2014: Issue 144
ARTZPACE 2014
ARTZPACE 2014 is currently open in the main hall at the Avalon Recreation Centre and runs until the 12th of January 2014 from 10am until 5pm. Initiated by Pittwater Council, the first of these was opened in 2008. The aim is threefold - to promote local emerging artists, to give them the experience of mounting and running an exhibition and to give all art lovers an opportunity the pleasure that visiting any high quality art exhibition brings. There is something wonderful that transfers to anyone who visits any art gallery and spends time among where so much combined creativity has been curated into one show and ArtZpace 2014 shall prove no exception to that experience.
Local ‘photographer at large’ Michael Mannington popped in on opening night, Friday 3rd of January 2014, to record these emerging artists with their works and has compiled quotes from the ARTZPACE 2014 website so those thinking of visiting this great bi-annual art event in Pittwater may be tempted even further.
Visitors can also get involved in the Art Auction for Bear Cottage and win themselves something wonderful by one of these artists at the same time!
Nicole Ballingall-Price
I inhabit the twilight zone between painter and sculptor - where the desire to create and to respond to my environment, is - and always will be , a passionate need. My paintings are gestural - almost impatient. A little like snippets of a half hear conversation.
Paintings
My paintings are gestural – almost impatient. A little like snippets of a half heard conversation. Brushes make rare guest appearances in my painting process. I prefer to use my fingers, cards or sponges. Paint comes straight from the tube and the fun happens on the canvas. It’s a messy but immensely satisfying process.
Don’t let them fool you – You really are never too old to finger paint.
Sculptures
The beauty and fluidity of the human form is a constant inspiration for my work. Our bodies convey so many of our emotions subconsciously. Our stance, the tilt of the head, a gesture…
So much of what we don’t say, is there to see in our very physicality. I try to capture these subtleties in my sculptures. In simplifying the forms, creating a more organic, abstracted shape, I invite the viewer to make their own connections to the piece, to recognise the emotions – or themselves within the gesture of the work.
Lorraine Beal
Now with greater understanding, I’m aware of the fragility of the flora and fauna along our coastline. Thankfully now, the degradation of ecosystems along our coast is of a great concern to many and I hope to add to this awareness through my paintings by highlighting a few of the many native species found locally. I have endeavored to capture their uniqueness and show that their connection to this precarious environment is essential to sustaining the coast as we know it so that future generations have the same opportunity that I did to marvel at this amazingly diverse environment.
Michael Biddulph
My interest in art following school (where I majored in it) grew on through my architecture degree where from the outset Lloyd Rees and John Ogburn took our drawing classes and Rick Leplastrier our design studios. With regard to drawing, they all insisted it was not about ‘looking’ at things but ‘seeing’ them that made valuable drawing. This early inspirational teaching gave me a greater understanding of the beauty of the world around me.
Years of drawing from life and describing the design process in architecture led to a need to study painting.
My mind deals with design and art constantly and whilst design is achievable, art is, as Lucien Freud said, a matter of “trying to do what I can’t”. It’s my personal challenge to produce painting and drawing that is a result of observation through my eyes via a response through my brain to the beauty and drama of the natural world around me
Elizabeth Cashmore
I have a deep love of ancient history, metal and wooden tools and machines. My ceramic pieces demonstrate all of these to produce rustic old looking vessels, sculpture and a variety of forms which are covered with my orange/green/white crackle glaze.
For the last 4 years I have been involved in the unearthing of old ancient relics, my aim being to refurbish these replicas to restore them to their past glory.
These old relics are from a time somewhere in the past. Many of the pots have been dug up or washed up on to beaches. I have tried to bring a sense of the past back to life by giving the drums a new skin, and the musical instruments, violin and lap harp, new strings. A new life.
Some have ancient writing and others the glaze has fallen off or scratched away to unfold the hidden meaning and symbols engraved upon them. They convey a period of time where they were used in daily life. Some are storage containers for water and grain, or teapots for making tea or an herbal brew. Others show sometime of daily life like the drums and the stringed instruments. Work and play.
Murray Coddington
I live on Sydney's Northern Beaches and love the life style here. My early paintings focused on Palm Beach where I enjoy swimming with a group of mates at weekends.
Retirement also freed up time to travel for pleasure. Exploring Italy by campervan was indeed an adventure and although delighted by the landscape and the grand sights of Rome, Florence and Venice, it was the people going about their everyday lives that provided inspiration for my paintings.
Jacqui Giuliano
I am moved by nature. Its changing patterns, colours and growth are an ongoing source of inspiration for my work. I am interested in capturing its essence so at times my work is abstract and impressionistic. I am also interested in art making as much as mark making. I use the resist technique of layering colour and wax to build a rich tapestry of elements, shapes and depth. With a background in architecture and printing, my art is a fusion of paint, wax and collage using various media to capture the richness of Pittwater.
My paintings are referenced from Careel Bay Reserve- Dog Park; Angophora Reserve; and Pittwater.
Tina Hunter
With the interplay of light on form I attempt to portray the infinite beauty of colour not only in every object the shadows and the surrounding space as light travels over and amongst them.
I explore the architecture of plant detail exposing the viewer to the amazing textures and shapes in my subjects bringing plant species into a setting usually resevered for portraits elevates their importance and significance.
My still-life set-ups are designed to evoke a tranquil mood and impression of timeless serenity both by the lighting itself and by the choice and arrangement of flowers, dried and organic objects.
The use of gold in my backgrounds helps to establish a feeling of richness and time gone past even evoking memories of renaissance art within the piece.
Beginning with my initial choice of objects, to the placement of those articles within a setting of interest, to the management of light and all the effects created by light and shadow through colour and value, my goal is to examine and portray, and, perhaps, heighten the beauty I see in my set-up as it is revealed by the light.
Candy Le Guay
Australia is an extraordinary landscape, filled with strange and unique Flora and Fauna. Living in Kuringai Chase National Park in Pittwater, one is constantly aware of its raw and strange beauty.......and of the powerful dimension of fire and smoke upon the Flora and Fauna. There is such beauty in Australia's harshness. The influence of these surroundings are predominant as I attempt to capture the spirit of this landscape.
After 40 years of looking at light with the eye of a photographer, it was staggering to me how the dimension of light changed with the challenge of a paintbrush. It is such a completely different concept of light at play here. Watching a painting evolve in front of yours eyes, often completely different as intended, is an amazing journey. To discover painting so late in life turns the whole world of art upside-down for me. It makes me want to rush out and look again at all Australian artists. But most of all, look at the "Bush" just a little differently !
Richard Magee
I have always been a late developer! It took me 50-odd years to put paint to canvas for the first time. An education in the English private school system didn’t accommodate things such as “art”. However, throughout a career in the IT world, I developed a love and appreciation for art, and painting in particular. And I also developed a desire to be actively involved in the art world. I wanted to paint!
And I wanted to paint landscapes, and rock formations in particular. I am inspired by abstract expressionism, especially American painters of the late 1950’s and 60’s. So I have developed an approach which encompasses some of the characteristics of abstract expressionism, in particular the mark making and use of form, while still basing my work on real life scenes by drawing, and re-drawing the subject throughout the process. My work may appear to be abstract expressionism, but in fact it is an abstract interpretation of real subjects.
But I also want the viewer to enjoy my work. I aim to produce paintings which communicate my passion for the subjects and engage the viewer with the same exuberance with which I approached the painting. At the same time, I want my work to be attractive on a purely aesthetic level.
Jane Rich
Amongst the many influences on my life, it was probably my time spent in the country, as a child, which had the greatest impact. It was a happy, carefree time, without boundaries or restrictions. The raw beauty, vast empty space and freedom would forever remain part of my soul and is reflected in my painting today.
Since starting painting nearly 30 years ago, I have explored many forms of creative expression, but I now work in oils, which I feel give texture and luminosity. I love the movement of the medium which has an earthy richness and allows a tactile connection with the canvas. I use a palette knife to keep the work loose; expressive rather than photographic.
Painting for me is a means of communicating, an emotional connection as I wander through the landscape. Enjoy the journey.
Fiona Verity
I’m a passionate painter and printmaker based on the Northern Beaches. I draw inspiration for my art from our Australian landscape and seascape: our local beaches, nature, wildlife and birds. I’m interested in/committed to the conservation of our marine and terrestrial ecosystems and hope to draw attention to these special areas through my artwork. I support the Australian Marine Conservation Society and initiatives such as Plastic Free July.
I love experimenting with different mediums – many of my original artworks incorporate a mixture of media, such as acrylic paint, gouache paint, collage, watercolour, charcoal, ink and monoprint. This combination of mediums replicates the contrast we see in nature and gives each piece an original and varied texture.
Katherine Roberts, Senior Curator at Manly Art Gallery & Museum who opened the exhibition with organisers Zoe Johnson from Pittwater Council and Rachel Carrol.
Images by Michael Mannington, Volunteer Photography, 2014.