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Gallery
What's on this month
You know your an artist if...
your date ends up with paint smears on him/her.
Upcoming exhibitions
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Feature Artists
The Myart Gallery is proud to represent this month's Feature Artists in a diverse and stimulating exhibit. Artists exhibiting this month include:
- Marianne de Graff
- Peter Granfield
- Deb Gilmartin
- Roslyn Hartwig
- Sharon Roberts
- Lorraine White
- Bruce N. Griffiths
- Robbie Erskine
- Cathy McClelland
- Shanthi Venugopalan
- Christine Brassington
- Joanne Smith
- Edwina Murphy
- Lionel Cubby
- Paul McCormack
The exhibition for this month includes work in Watercolour, Acrylic, Oil, Pastel, Mixed Media and Prints.
Featured Artists
Marianne de Graff
Originally from the Netherlands, Marianne has come from the culturally established background of Europe to the raw boldness of the Australian landscape which has inspired her to use the full spectrum in her palette to create the most alive and innovative pieces from the moment she selects the paper. Strong vibrant colours are used and are important to her self expression. Marianne works mainly in pastel and watercolour.
Peter Granfield
Peter has had a life long interest in photography. Being of the old school of SLR cameras he prefers to compose the photo BEFORE pressing the shutter button. None of his images have been digitally altered in any way, nor has he used any filters to enhance lighting effects. These days he uses a Lumix pocket digital for most of his shots but occassionally brings out the Horizon swing lens panorama camera when travelling to new destinations, to capture those really wide shots.
Roslyn Hartwig
My first 17 years where spent on a grain farm at Bongeen on the Darling Downs. I remember especially, loving to watch magnificent displays of lightning over the flat plains. With my mother's encouragement, I developed, in my teens, a love of craft of many varieties and these formed the basis of my creative pursuits for many years. I also learnt to play the piano as a child and today, this is a great source of pleasure and relaxation for me.
After having a shop assistant position for several years, my main occupation for the last 20 years has been raising my four wonderful children. In 1998, as my children were all in school, I started thinking about what I was to do in the future, I attended a Christian Alpha Course which had a huge impact on my life. As our discussion group continues to meet later, they joined me in prayer about the direction my life was to take. In mid year, I also joined the Oakey Art Group and began to attend regularly.
With the immediate interest I had and the quick development I was making, it occurred to me that this was the direction God was taking me in. He had given me a talent that I was to develop and hone through much practice. Initially, I was using pastels and towards the end of that same year, I discovered watercolour for the first time. Even my initial attempts convinced me that I would love the way this medium worked. I love its freshness and light, while still being able to get a depth of colour and tone that I am only now exploring in depth.
During the next four years, I attended 15 workshops - all with different tutors. Mostly, they were watercolour classes, but also, drawing, pastel, mixed media and even oils (which I didn't like much). They all taught me something that I could incorporate into my own work, but at the end of 2002, I decided that I'd had enough of workshops and that I needed to put into practice what I had learnt and truly develop my own painting style and subjects.
During this time, too, I had been sending paintings to local art shows and throughout Queensland and New South Wales winning prizes and selling paintings. This has been a real encouragement to me to continue with what I'm doing. I also began to tutor others in 2004 and this has added to my practice immensely. I'm looking forward to doing more on this line. I have held two joint exhibitions in Toowoomba and have been included in many exhibitions with Oakey Art Group members. It has been my great pleasure to paint these works and especially to be able to present them to the public.
Sharon Roberts
My artwork of the past five years has been predominantly a response to landscape. The landscape has been somewhat abstracted; reduced to those aspects which I feel express my response to that place at the time, or to my memories associated with a place. I consider my work to be meta-physical in a sense of going beyond the physical landscape to an aspect of its essence, and in its inseparability from my faith and world view.
Acrylic paint on canvas has been my predominate media of choice, however I have recently begun exploring print techniques, reflecting similar ideas to those in my paintings but through a different process.
Deb Gilmartin
My background as an entomologist and science teacher influences my art at all levels where I am endlessly fascinated by the form and function. My work is mainly realistic and I am inspired by a wide range of subjects ranging from depicting the human form, animals, still life, landscape and aviation subjects. I have worked as Australian Aerospace “artist in residence’ during 2006-2007 culminating in a solo exhibition Tigers, Rotors & Blokes. I was a finalist in the Hans Heysen landscape Prize 2008 and I have exhibited in Qld, NSW and Victoria and I have work in private collections both here in Australia and overseas. My work focuses on telling stories and exploring the idea of using negative spaces as an important component of the story. I draw, paint (acrylics) print (relief & intaglio) and take photographs. I also teach traditional drawing skills. Although mainly self taught I regularly attend workshops.
Lorraine White
As a textile artist, I am interested in the textural surfaces of the environment around me and the challenge of reproducing them in a media not necessarily related to the original subject matter. The process of spinning and weaving is a fascinating medium, taking materials from their raw stage to the finished product, which combined with new fibres such as bamboo and soya-bean opens up a world of possibilities. With a particular interest in the history of female handicrafts and costuming, my work focuses on the corset as object.
Recent research has also informed my weaving, with regards to my cultural heritage in the production of tartans and exploration of card and inkle loom weaving, and my knitting through use of traditional fair isle patterning as a decorative element.
My practice also explores other media including oils, pastel, colour pencil and photography.
Bruce N. Griffiths
Artist Bruce Griffiths still works by the modem, never paint where you haven't been and never paint what you cannot feel. Located at the base of the Tallebudgera Valley on the Gold Coast, his sea and country landscapes reflect a lifetime of fishing and the bush has instilled a love of the outdoors, which is the preferred subject of his paintings. Through his brush, Bruce reveals the natural beauty of Australia.
Bruce has been a local and successful exhibitor through competitions from Hervey Bay North, Murwillumbah South and west to Warwick & Stanthorpe. His first solo exhibition was held in March 2008 and was a great success.
Robbie Erskine
Robbie Erskine has been involved in art and design in high school and then a 4 year Graphic Design Degree in Adelaide. Her degree work has an illustrative emphasis and her designs were subtle and sensitive. Ten years of graphic design employment followed in both Adelaide and Sydney.
It wasn't until after the birth of her first child that the world of painting opened up. Afer completing a pastel portrait of her son, she was on her artistic journey again. Pastel gave way to watercolour, acrylic, drawing and oil painting. After moving to a beef cattle property on the Darling Downs, Robbie atteneded many Clifton Art and Murray's Workshops, as well as regular life drawing sessions at the Toowoomba Art Society. Prizes and sales followed at many local art group shows.
Robbie's subject mattter ranges from moody landscapes, nudes, flowers, still life and animal studies in many mediums, the favourite of which is oil paint. Recent work for solo shows is moving into the Surrealist area.
Currently undertaking a Visual Arts Diploma at Toowoomba TAFE, Robbie plans in the near future to have solo exhibitions as well as taking part in group shows.
Cathy McClelland
I am an Australian resident with five generations of connection to the Bell Community and the Bunya Mountains. My ancestors were loggers and bullock team drivers on the Bunya Mountains that continued to farm and graze the local lands through the following generation’s right up until now with myself and my family farming the original farm.
As a famer and grazier the drought has impacted on us greatly and my art has enabled me to escape from the harshness of our life. I love to create paintings with colour and mood that evoke memories for people so they too can escape for a moment and enjoy them.
I have always painted from a child and am drawn to the environment I live in. I paint what I know and what I have experienced. I often paint on site so I can absorb my responses and feelings to, it then put it all together and put it into a painting. I believe my love for the Australian landscape in all its varying forms and of particularly our stunning local Bunya Mountains enables me to capture our environment in paintings that continue to bring great enjoyment to the viewer.
I love the Bunya Mountains in all of their beauty from the magnificent rainforest to the open eucalyptus forest. The many and varied birds and animals are a delight to see and I love to paint them in their natural environment. I love the weather of the Bunya Mountains from the cold winters with their rising mists and fogs to the summers with its cool, shady retreats of the great Bunya Forests.
My subjects I paint are varied from landscapes, wildlife, farm animals, buildings, houses, properties and portraits. I have enjoyed painting in all forms art medium, watercolour, mixed media, acrylics and oils.
I paint to portray an emotional response to my subject that a viewer can connect to. I know I have been successful when they do.
http://www.cathymcclelland.com.au/index.html
Joanne Smith
I am interested in the domesticity of everyday life, in particular that of food and it preparation. More recently I have stepped outside into the herb garden and olive orchard to find my symbols. The elements of design that I like to explore include size, shape, space, placement, relatedness, direction, weight and tone. I am keen to experiment beyond the traditional confines of printmaking in order to find my own process and type of mark-making. Some works may include a multiplicity of these techniques.
Paul McCormack
My interset in painting and drawing only began five years ago when I had a year's sabbatical. I began the year with a McGregor Summer School where I did "Introduction to Watercolour for absolute beginners". I loved it. Since then I have attended four Summer Schools at USQ and I do the odd weekend workshop at Murray's. I am a priest, teacher and musician and hve been appointed here in Toowoomba to Downlands College since 1984. I love being on the Downs. The subjects I tend to paint and draw come mainly from my contacts in Downlands. I do a lot of portraits. My greatest influence has been Maxwell Wilks, a tonal impressionist from Melbourne. I didn't like pastels until I saw his approach to the medium. My greatest inspiration is the French Impressionist school, in particular, I love Degas. For portraits I admire Velasquez and the American, Singer Sargent.
I am happy to just draw and sketch and try to fit some art into my daily routine, in between teaching French and Religion and taking the whole boarding school for their singing practice. I am always trying new approaches and love the adventure of discovery. The challenge as I see it, is to capture the magic of how the light falls on a subject.
Contact
Murray’s Art & Framing
326 Ruthven Street
Toowoomba Q 4350
Ph: 07 4632 2727
Fax: 07 4638 4640
Email: art@myart.com.au