The latest exhibition at the National Gallery is Jessie Trail – Stars in the River Etching is an attractive form of artwork. Jessie Traill is a skilled expert in the field . I love her take on building and construction. Etching naturally contrast light and dark. A lovely series included in the exhibition covers the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Steel and cranes against lighted backgrounds are starkly portrayed in many of her works. In every construction etching in this exhibition she inserts tiny humans doing ordinary things in the midst of grand scale building projects.
Her other strength is in peaceful landscapes. There is a delightful little creation called Beehives in the snow. A set of small roofs set in a field softened by the rounded edges heavy snow on the ground and roofs establishes a soft almost hugable look.
The exhibition includes lots of experimentation in etchings. From her European travels there are some delightful treatments of people engaged in day to day life. Traill seems always engaged with the human dimension and one of the most striking examples of her mix between human and natural elements is in the one of a wood cutters home shrouded in shadow and given its tiny scale by the surrounding forest. I knew little of Traill before I went into the exhibition and left excited to learn more.
The National Gallery of Australia site is
http://nga.gov.au/Traill/