Camie Lyons’ upcoming exhibition ‘Bush Calligraphy – about close observations & things of wonder’ at Australian Galleries Sydney will present works created on her artist residencies at Umbi Gumbi and BigCi in 2020 and 2021.
Camie Lyons’ ‘Bush Calligraphy – about close observations & things of wonder’ will open on Tuesday 22nd March at Australian Galleries Sydney and continue until Sunday 10th March 2022. Many of the works in the exhibition have been created on her artist residencies at Umbi Gumbi and BigCi in 2020 and 2021. BigCi is located on a large 8-acre property in the town of Bilpin right on the doorstep of Wollemi National Park, in the World Heritage listed Greater Blue Mountains, about one and a half hours drive from Sydney. The extraordinary beauty of the surroundings provides a ground for creativity and professional development. Umbi Gumbi is located just past Bermagui on the South Coast. It is a nature reserve and unique landscape that has attracted a long lineage of artists from all disciplines. The little bush studio provides a space for artists to work uninterrupted within the landscape. Kissed by the bush and sea, Camie’s body of work from Umbi Gumbi is a love affair with the Australian Landscape.
“It is such a gift, residency time, to be removed from your everyday and told to use this time and space as you please – to soak it up, to taste and feel, to let that perfume your creativity. Time becomes elastic with no other obligations, my day dictated by bursts of making, reading, periods of contemplation and observation. The best surprises come from experimenting – throwing stuff about, getting obsessed over some small thing and following that to its conclusion, or wandering onto an entirely new path of endless possibilities. This fever of making has led the way into a new body of work. Kissed by the bush and sea, this series is a love affair with the Australian landscape.” – Camie Lyons, 2021
‘Surrounded by whispering giants
Wren lyrics and the big aching green roar of vast lungs
My gracious guardians – silent souls, nursing me safe in their limbs
Twirling dervish leaves tumble through the glinting space, catching my eyes as a thousand tiny hearts scamper.
Soft colour of dank undergrowth,
Still bleached from past sun,
Hard light in constant verticals, punctuating my every vista.
Always the underpinning of bombastic blue …….. then I trip and go down down down the wombat hole, chasing the glistening promise of all this fodder.’
Exhibition Details
Tuesday 22 March – Sunday 10 April 2022
Opening Tuesday 22 March, 6-8 pm
Australian Galleries Sydney
15 Roylston Street Paddington