Ken Knight’s ‘FRONTIER’ Exhibition

Renowned Australian landscape painter Ken Knight has been said to follow the grand tradition of Streeton and Roberts. In the four decades he has been painting, every canvas is made plein air, right in the heart of wherever his mobile studio takes him. Rigging up “Troopy”, an army jeep bedecked with oils, his French easel and his trusted saw (for spontaneous re-sizing), Knight is an all-terrain painter accustomed to long days chasing the light while re-inventing the line. In over 60 solo shows, his passion for the natural world has forged a contemporary style with a gutsy gestural signature. Broad strokes and energised composition revive…

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‘Potpourri’ by Sally Ryan

“Potpourri, as the name suggests, is a collection of paintings produced over the past year during lockdown. Each painting has been created as an individual artwork from objects available to me at the time and as there was no intentional theme as I painted, the collection itself became an appropriate title for this group of artworks. As a realist painter I am interested in painting everyday life and recently that has been confined mainly to my studio environment. Beauty can be found everywhere but I have particularly loved painting some organic items such as pears, onions and tomatoes because of…

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Our new artist – Susan Sheridan

Susan Sheridan has always painted and has been a professional artist for over forty years. Sheridan studied at the National Art School from 1958 and attended evening classes at the Julian Ashton School. Her work is defined by muted tones, atmospheric, impressionistic, sublime, dreamy, understatement; capturing a feeling which convincingly informs her art. Susan Sheridan experiences the landscape by absorbing and recording nature in sketch books with watercolour/ gouache and mixed media. Returning to her studio she seeks the true nature of the subject and how to distill this on canvas. Combining abstract forms and subtle reality, she leads the…

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Q & A with Sally Stokes

1. Please select one painting from your exhibition. Tell us more about this painting; your process, and why you think it will connect with your viewers. Art is such a personal experience, some experiences ignite and others burn out, so I’m never sure what will connect with viewers- all I can do is live through the painting and hope some viewers catch the flame. As I sit in my boatshed studio on Marramarra Creek, with the tide lapping the jetty posts and the rain falling, I remember the genesis of this painting— many canoe trips to Kulkah Bay, one of…

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Mary Donnelly | Landscapes On A Table

FROM HER STUDIO IN THE CENTRAL TABLELANDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES, ARTIST MARY DONNELLY CREATES STILL LIFE ART THAT SHE DESCRIBES AS “LANDSCAPES ON A TABLE”. “On a table, I portray a series of objects focusing on creating uncanny tensions within the composition, subtle relationships of shapes, tonalities and colour.  The viewer is invited to explore the space and engage with the objects on the table.  The works are somewhat “quiet” compositions and the objects present themselves as on a stage to perform or be noticed. To begin the work, I prefer the approach of drawing directly onto the canvas in…

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The Black Honey of Summer

The title of Sally Stokes solo exhibition, ‘The Black Honey of Summer‘ as well as the pictured artwork is inspired by a Mary Oliver poem, ‘August’. Stokes references a lot of her paintings with poetry. In fact, every morning a poem is shared together with her husband, Tony “it’s a way of connecting at the start of every day. If the day begins well, it will often end well”. Interesting to note the poet, Oliver is completely immersed in the body of “Other”, which in this context is a bear. She has brought in the plight of a bear living…

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