REVIEW

Annual Exhibition 2014 - Gallery 314

Artist floor-talk - 14 September

Reviewed by Carmel Ritchie

The CAS Annual Exhibition 2014 artist floor talk was held on Sunday 14th September to an enthusiastic group of artists and visitors. Winning artists who won a prize or a commendation were invited to talk about their work. It was an opportunity to reveal creative insights and personal achievements.

George Eustice described how his simple sketch of a pigeon years ago, developed into his prize winning painting. He reflected on the need to keep ideas for future reference. George worked on a red background, painting over it but leaving some red emphasising the darkness of the emotion surrounding the captured bird. He later added six thick painted bars behind the bird to strengthen that hopelessness.

Debbie Harris Walter captured the audience with her explanation of how her interest in microscopic forms influences her works.  Attention to fine detail and her memories of museum exhibits are the key to her modern work. Debbie described the technical battle to correctly express the balance of a microscopic animal, as well as the world around. The harsh horizons in her landscape, she explained, cause the viewer to focus on the detailed invertebrates and their short life cycle. Her connection to museums is noticed through the tags and Latin names pasted on the work. Debbie paints the beauty of life, which is almost invisible to our eyes, then tears it away from its natural state into our world.

Mary-Lin Litchfield described how her work is a change from her past.  As an art teacher, she needed to explore a different way to release her own creative ideas. She described how the change in herself from previously having a palette of very few colours to now experimenting with muted colours is helping her tap into her creativity. She has included threads from the past and changes in the landscape in her new abstract style. Mary-Lin is excited with her new style of painting and is looking forward to using colour more in her paintings.

Shelly Vincent uses memories to connect to herself and the viewer. By tearing up a book and melting plastic she changed both into a series of perceived memories with absences on the pages as connection to forgetting.  Shelly likened her work to childhood: living in the moment and often forgetting later. She described how satisfying it was to sew by hand, paper, plastic and polystyrene onto the torn pages.

Edit Meaklim explained her technical prowess, describing the creating resin in moulds, which sometimes do not work out as expected. Never giving up, she reused the green resin figure in her winning recycled scene.  She described having boxes of many varied objects for use in her assembled sculptures.  Edit normally expects parts of her pieces to be picked up by viewers and moved to create a different scene.  She also described how proud she is of her resin work. However she cautioned artists from being complacent in copying ideas rather than creating them themselves. Edit spoke about her creative recycling of everyday objects as fun and her delight in designing an original artwork.

Ian Whitford is a man on a mission. His art now is aimed to have Toolangi Discovery Centre reopened to educate the public and students. Ian’s painting of the Toolangi building was done spontaneously, using loose strokes, bright colours and translucent glazes that capture the light of the forest. He relates colour to education and enlightenment. Everything is connected and has a relationship with the history of the forest. Ian clearly demonstrates a great skill in painting but dearly wants a change in attitude towards education allowing for conservation and a love of the beautiful Toolangi forest. More information HERE.

Click on small image below to see some photos from the floortalk....