Sally & Me

Rochfort Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition ‘The Black Honey of Summer‘ by artist Sally Stokes.The exhibition will run from 23rd June – 15th August 2021. Journal Entry by Tony Scotland, husband and loving manager to Sally Stokes. “I grew up in a home with no original art. There were 3 ducks on a wall, and an awful print of horses prancing around at the beach. There were only two books; the Bible, treasured by my mother and the latest Harold Robbins thriller guarded by my father. The one saving grace was that both my parents and my…

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New Beginnings at The River

Curator’s Notes This film documents new beginnings for artist, Phil Stallard as he packs up his suburban studio and transitions to living and painting at the base of an escarpment off the Macdonald River, near Wisemans Ferry. The underpinning theme for Stallard is his constant connection to waterways and harbour headlands. With his vibrant colours, geometric lines and spontaneous painterly gestures, he radiates energy and a sense of freedom. The River. “This series could be described as a mixture of ‘plein air’ direct reporting” with abstraction. The work also contains oblique references to the Parramatta River, flowing out through the heads…

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Ken Knight Survey Exhibition

Above: Artwork (detail) ‘Dance of the Gums Midday Triptych’ Ken Knight held his first solo show in 1979. This year Rochfort Gallery celebrates four decades of dynamic contemporary post-impressionism by an artist who has devoted his life to landscape. Painting Plein Air, Knight spends the majority of his year in his “Rovey”, his weather-beaten mobile studio, trekking through the Kimberley Coast, The Pilbara, The Western Districts and his mellow beloved Sydney Harbour. The kinetic relationship between nature, the elements and painting, forge the bedrock of his practice. Knight’s ability to set up his easel and decisively gauge dynamic forms from…

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At Home With Joanne Duffy

Perth-based artist, Joanne Duffy takes us on a journey through her habitat and neighbourhood – the ocean, bush and wetlands – just a stone’s throw away from her back door. Duffy’s paintings transcend borders, illuminating the wonders of the firmament.Key inspirations of her work lie in interpreting the emotional response of landscape and being immersed in nature and the change of seasons. “Each season there is a myriad of moods, colours and stimuli all within a short distance from home. The Indian Ocean is one of my favourite locations and is never the same colour with every blue imaginable. Sometimes…

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Journey through the habitat of artist, Coco Elder

In this short documentary film of Coco Elder, we see the artist exploring and immersing herself in her habitat, Ku-Ring-Gai National Park.Elder is naturally inspired to paint the fractured reflections of the reeds, the sky, the various greens of the surrounding bush and the vibrant Sydney sandstone submerged beneath the surface. For Elder, reflections provide a beautiful sense of movement and pattern to engage the eye. Elder’s tremendous use of intricate carved lines is truly unique and disciplined. As a child, Coco learnt to shape pots from clay found on the side of the road with weekends spent in the…

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Painting ‘plein air’ with Ken Knight

1. Tell us about your recent trip to Antarctica and what was your most memorable moment?I have travelled and painted extensively around the world in the last 40 years. I have seen images of the Antarctic landscape and it always fascinated and struck me as an incredible location. One of the aspects that particularly drew me to the area was the fact that it has been totally untouched by man due to its inaccessible nature and the elemental and hostile aspect of the climate.And inaccessible it was… From the time we left home it took seven days before we travelled…

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