These two artists have collaborated in a huge exhibition of their shared passion for painting their sense of the landscapes we all inhabit. They have a different approach to representing our world with Caroline Deeble using watercolour on paper more with Del Cooley focusing on oils on canvas, The range of their work goes from sea to mountains from abstract to realistic and they include lots of highly designed works. Prices of the ninety works on show range from $600 to nearly $9,000. The show ends on this coming weekend Sunday February 6 2022
Our wonderful artist of all things Canberra, Trevor Dickenson has an exhibition at The Front at Lyneham Shops aptly titled Fresh Canberra Classics. In this show featuring around fifty new creations Trevor has brought to life many widely known Canberra views with a new Dickensonian take. I love his work and it is all still there till Monday January 3. The website below takes you to the details.
A one artist show at CCAS’ Manuka space in December featured the work of Peter van der Mael. He showed works in graphite drawings; multi-colour etching; oil painting and pottery which reflect different stages in his artistic development. The image above was my favourite but there is more information and one of the oil paintings on the web link below
“Recovery” was the 8th annual photographic exhibition by the Friends of the Australian National Botanic Gardens Photographic Group. Photos taken by people who love their subject matter often have a special quality about them. This exhibition was made up of no nonsense clear images of the remarkable flora and fauna contained in the fences of the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra. All photos were created by members of the group. On display there were framed images, photographic prints, cards and other items. I am sure even though the exhibition is over the group will have materials for sale if you contact them through the Gardens visitor centre.
In December there was an exhibition of work by five ceramic artists at the Beaver Galleries. Somchai Charoen, Julie Bartholomew, Kenji Uranishi, and the colleagues Lucille Sciallano and Ben Landau, all put up striking works to demonstrate the beauty and artistry of high quality ceramics. All were doing quite different things with their shared media but each piece was a striking object. I have only included one picture here but the Beaver website has great images of this exhibition and quality notes on the artists and their work.
I am sad I did not post on this before it closed. Every year Beaver Galleries puts on an exhibition before Christmas titled Small Works. It targets the Christmas gift market I think because all the works are relatively small, transportable and able to be wrapped. The collection of works is chosen from artists represented by Beaver and so has a delightful range or styles, media and prices. Even though my slackness did not get this post up for you to go to the gallery the people at Beaver maintain a great website for you to eyeball their catalogues and contact for enquiries and or purchase.
A great exhibition shown at Grainger in early December featured sisters Narelle Zeller and Colleen Stapleton. In the exhibition Narelle Zeller’s contribution was a set of rich still life flower arrangements painted in realistic colours accompanied in the gallery by real flower arangements that were created by the artist who creates them for Narelle to paint. Colleen Stapleton’s part in the exhibition was a gorgeous set of emotionally engaged portraits of predominantly female subjects often in energetic poses with flashes of movement and colour. The exhibition is over but the catalogue is still on the website for you to check out and contact the Graingers with inquiries.
The pictured work represents all that I love about Elizabeth Newman’s art. It is small, made of the most basic materials but it points to something beyond her work. Standing in front of it I could not stop myself commenting to a stranger next to me that this would not work well at my place. My walls are manufactured wall sheeting with no texture. Newman turns the work of some tradie from the past into the object of focus indeed a work of beauty. I felt energised as I walked out of this exhibition – mundanity reworked into delightful works of art.
The website says it is on till January 23, Check with the Gallery as pre Covid the gallery usually closed about now and would not open till late February 2022
Upholstered storage box with printed fabric at Craft ACT
One of the truly great annual exhibitions in Canberra is the Members Exhibition at Craft ACT. The members submit a piece or two to the exhibition and auction. CraftACT is a local collective of creatives who all seem to aspire to leadership in their various craft disciplines. Some craft skills I do not understand and some I like little but in this show you never see anything that is not worthy of exhibition.
Glass, furniture, fabrics, pottery, sculpture, metal, jewellery and other craft styles abound and demonstrate the creative potential of each approach.Most objects seem to be available for purchase If you have not seen this display it is only on till Tuesday December 14 2021 – It is well worth the visit.
Delayed by Covid 19 the exhibition of some work in the creative world of Graeme Base is now open at Belconnen Arts Centre. Base has a legendary forte in the field of visually rich large format highly illustrated books. The books are a global phenomenon and this exhibition focuses mainly on the work called The Worst Band in the Universe. An exhibition of Base’s work would be enormous so the curators of this exhibition use one book to give an insight into his world.
The exhibition takes you through the process of creation. There are thin pencil sketches of fantastic creatures and worlds, there are mocked up pages to envision text and image lay out. There are rich colour images that made it into the final book. There are foreign language versions of the book. This relatively small exhibition shines a bright light on what I see as the genius of Graeme Base and his world.
I love his work and I thoroughly enjoyed this insight into his work. There are QR codes in the space with interviews and other materials. There are events conducted to expand our understanding of this creative man and happily the exhibition is on till Sunday February 6 2022.
stephenrrandall 