Finalists in the Maritime Art Prize – The Mission to Seafarers

Dale Cox  Take your medicine  2023  acrylic on gold enamel on board framed  73 x 123 cm

Congratulations to Sue Anderson, Dale Cox, Rodney Forbes, Rick Matear and Christine Wrest-Smith who have been selected as Finalists for the Maritime Art Prize 2023.

The Mission to Seafarers Maritime Art Prize is back for it’s 21st year, and invited artists to respond to the theme of The Relationship of Humanity to the Sea. Hosted at the heritage-listed Mission building in Docklands, Melbourne has gained international recognition as a prestigious competition and boasts a $25,000 prize pool.

Congratulations to Dale Cox who received the Runner-Up Award for his painting Take your medicine.

Exhibition Open:
Friday 20 – Thursday 26 October
12pm – 8pm Daily

Exhibition Opening Night:
Thursday 19 October, 6pm

Rodney Pople – 2023 Mosman Art Prize Finalist

 Rodney Pople High as a kite  2023  oil on linen 153 x 131 cm

Congratulations to Rodney Pople who has been selected as a finalist in the 2023 Mosman Art Prize with his brilliant self portrait, High as a kite.

“This painting is from an ongoing series of self portraits. In particular ‘high as a kite ‘ follows on from my skater painting that was exhibited in the 2004 Archibald. Both paintings owe a debt or homage to Henry Raeburn for his skating painting (early 18th C). In my first painting of the skater painted in 2003 the figure is more striking with glowing blacks of the coat to contrast the ice and sky. The latest work is softer in hues and the head of the figure is almost floating into the sky and the blacks are softer.  I did this to suggest the difference in age from 49 to 70 confronting for me but I was spurred on by Titians comment that painting is an old man’s game.”

The Mosman Art Prize is the longest running and most prestigious municipal art prize in Australia. Winning entries form the basis of the Mosman Art Collection, a valuable and historic collection that surveys Australian painting since 1947.

The Mosman Art Prize is an acquisitive award sponsored by Mosman Council. Previous winners form a roll call of Australian art luminaries; Grace Cossington Smith, Nancy Borlase, Lloyd Rees, Guy Warren, Margo Lewers, Jenny Sages, Noel McKenna, Cressida Campbell, Jumaadi, Elisabeth Cummings, Adam Cullen, Jasper Knight, Guan Wei, Natasha Walsh and Michael Zavros.

The 2023 Mosman Art Prize exhibition is now showing at
Mosman Art Gallery
1 Art Gallery Way, Mosman NSW

On view until Sunday 29 October 2023

To view a selection of Rodney Pople’s available works, visit our online Stock Rooms here

Artist Feature – Pippin Drysdale

Pippin Drysdale is regarded as the foremost interpreter of the Australian landscape in the field of ceramics. Her works are known for their intensity of colour and linear markings that interpret the artist’s relationship with the Australian natural environment.

Australian Galleries is delighted to announce that Pippin Drysdale The Patterning of Light: Breakaway Series II-III will be exhibited in the Melbourne Stock Rooms gallery from 7 – 25 June 2022. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with our gallery.

Please email enquiries@auatraliangalleries.com.au if you would like to register your interest or arrange to preview these exquisite works.

Pippin Drysdale has been a member of The Australian Ceramics Association since commencing her career in the 1970s and has been active as a member of the ceramics community – exhibiting, holding workshops, undertaking residencies both nationally and internationally. Her works have been collected by galleries, museums, curators and private collectors worldwide.

Based in Fremantle, Western Australia, Pippin’s career spans over 50 years, over half of which has been a hugely successful collaboration with Warwick Palmateer who throws the vessels that Pippin decorates in her iconic style.

‘I am inspired by landscape and am driven to capture its essential beauty. My porcelain vessels record my journeys through Australia’s unique and varied environments. The various series trace my travels to the Pinnacles north of Perth, to the Eastern Goldfields and the salt lakes in the interior of Western Australia. A digression to Pakistan resulted in a series of vibrant works inspired by that impressive land and the largest single work I have ever made. Visits to the Tatami Desert saw a more delicately decorated collection and another to the north of the State – the Kimberley and interaction with Aboriginal people is resulting in another series of really strong collections.’  

 

Pippin Drysdale  Devil’s Marbles, Muted Beauty  (installation) 2021-22  porcelain marble, incised lines  11 individual vessels  29 x 120 x 50 cm

‘As I have continued to explore my Breakaway Series I have become increasingly fascinated with the properties of Light within the Landscape and my focus has moved from the “vastness” of the images to the “smallness” of things – the way Light bounces and bends with the breeze on the water; filtered Light through gently moving vegetation; the iridescence of dragonfly wings; the fluttering of fish; the glisten of frogs; the dew on the leaves and rocks. Correspondingly I have been consciously seeking an increased sheen to my vessels, making smaller vessels as little surprises and my palette has shifted from the broader colours of the land, the water and the sky to the subtleties of the small and wonderful.’ – Pippin Drysdale, 2022

 

Pippin Drysdale   Devil’s Marbles, Muted Beauty  2021-22   porcelain marble, incised lines   individual vessel

Pippin Drysdale   Devil’s Marbles, Muted Beauty  2021-22   porcelain marble, incised lines   individual vessel

Pippin Drysdale   Devil’s Marbles, Muted Beauty  2021-22   porcelain marble, incised lines   individual vessel

Pippin Drysdale   Devil’s Marbles, Muted Beauty  2021-22   porcelain marble, incised lines   individual vessel

 

‘First Light: the art of Peter Kingston’ – S.H Ervin Gallery

Image: Peter Kingston, Lady Herron II (2014), oil on canvas, 111 x 141cm

First Light: the art of Peter Kingston

5 December 2020 – 14 February 2021

S.H Ervin Gallery

This exhibition is in some respects based on an epiphany experienced by Sydney artist Peter Kingston (born 1943) following the death of his close friend and Lavender Bay neighbour Brett Whiteley in 1992. It seemed that at last Kingston was released from an enormous shadow of talent, skill and success of his mentor to embark with his own sense of poetic language conveying an abiding passion for a subject he had had grown up with from childhood: Sydney Harbour.

Versatile and multi-talented in his own right, with a natural ability for drawing, Kingston was inspired from an early age by films and comics to create quirky cartoons and illustrations, later contributing to university magazines and eventually the infamous Oz magazine of the 1960s, becoming part of Martin Sharp’s Yellow House collective in Potts Point, where he would also experiment with film-making.

But it was after he moved into and purchased the house next door to Whiteley, within view of another of his Sydney icons Luna Park, Kingston would go on to create some of his most impressive works. These are the revelatory crux of this exhibition, draughtsman and painter recording a natural, spectacular synergy between nature and civilisation. Through the great fluid energy and character of the Emerald City, its changing moods, the perpetual ebb and flow of ferries, Kingston has frequently featured its iconic Opera House, an epicentre of grand spaces of surrounding waterways framed by skylines of human activity. Night or day, he has responded to its evanescent beauty through his pictorial symphonies:

I have seen countless nights watching the moon reflect upon the water and the shadow of this great building creating colours and unique impressions each passing day.

A small group of display cases will include selections of Kingston’s artist books, prints, sketchbooks and memorabilia, and a wunderkabinet containing nostalgic relics of his earlier incarnation as pop-illustrator-satirist, precursor to the main body of post-1990 celebrations of his most beloved subject.

Curated by Barry Pearce, Emeritus Curator of Australian Art, AGNSW.

New monograph published by The Beagle Press – Peter Kingston: Paintings and Drawings available at the gallery for $120.

About the artist

Celebrated Australian landscape painter, Peter Kingston, received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales in 1965 and tutored in architecture at the University of Sydney. He has held over 35 solo exhibitions since 1978 in Sydney and New York. A survey exhibition of his work titled ‘Habourlights’ was toured by the Manly Regional Gallery in 2004, and coincided with the release of his first monograph. Kingston has been included in numerous group exhibitions including the Dobell Drawing Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1993 and 2000, the Wynne Prize between 1995 and 2003, and the Sulman Prize between 1998 and 2001. In 2019, he was a part of a significant exhibition titled ‘Bohemian Harbour: Artists of Lavender Bay’ alongside the work of fellow artist and friend Brett Whiteley at the Museum of Sydney.

Exhibiting with Australian Galleries since 1993, Peter Kingston is highly celebrated for his sensitive and evocative works portraying a lifelong connection to Sydney Harbour and deep rooted desire to preserve its character and charm. Kingston conveys with great reverence life on and around the water, from the iconic old ferries and the moon rising over the majestic Sydney Opera House to the endless colours, tones and textures observed throughout the changing seasons.

Kingston’s work is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; the State Library of New South Wales, Sydney; the Museum of Sydney, several regional galleries and internationally by the Biblioteque de la ville, Belgium; Costen Library, Los Angeles and the National Film Library in Tokyo. In 2019, The Beagle Press published the artist’s second monograph titled ‘Peter Kingston’, written by Barry Pearce.

To view available drawings, etchings and paintings by Peter Kingston, view the gallery stockroom online or contact sydney@australiangalleries.com.au

Jennifer Keeler-Milne – Finalist in the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize, SAM

Images: Beetles, bugs and butterflies, charcoal, paper, timber, glass, 7 domes, dimensions variable

Jennifer Keeler-Milne’s beautiful work comprised of double sided charcoal drawings in glass specimen jars titled ‘Beetles, bugs and butterflies’ has been selected for the Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize biennial exhibition at the South Australian Museum which will run from Friday 11 December to Sunday 7 February.

The Waterhouse Natural Science Art Prize commemorates the birth of the South Australian Museum’s first curator, Frederick George Waterhouse. The biennial prize is an opportunity for artists to investigate the world around them and present their perspectives on natural science. It encourages artists to make a statement about the scientific issues facing our planet, and offers a valuable platform for them to contribute to the environmental debate. Over the years the competition has become a much loved fixture on the arts calendar, allowing artists and audiences to explore natural science through a range of creative outlets.

“I am a Sydney artist and for over a decade my principal subject has been nature, with a strong emphasis on drawing using charcoal. My underlying concerns are to reflect the beauty and mystery of nature. Beetles, bugs and butterflies is a small cabinet of curiosities featuring drawings of a variety of insects. It seeks to celebrate insects who are largely unseen and their incalculable importance to our lives, through the food web and the pollination of plants. This work also pays homage to the wunderkammer and the rich history of collecting natural objects.”

– Jennifer Keeler-Milne, 2020

About the artist

Born in Melbourne, Jennifer Keeler-Milne lives and works in Sydney as a practicing artist and holds a Post-Graduate Diploma in Fine Arts from the Victorian College of the Arts and a Master of Art Administration. A former museum educator with the Art Gallery of New South Wales and lecturer at Sydney University, UTS and the National Art School, Jennifer also runs her own drawing school, Dare to Draw, teaching the principles and techniques of drawing.

Jennifer has had several solo exhibitions in Sydney, as well as group shows in Hong Kong and Paris, where she completed a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts. Jennifer was a finalist several times in the Dobell Prize for Drawing, as well as the Kedumba Drawing Award, Fleurieu Peninsula Art Prize, Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize, and was also awarded the Fred Williams Family Prize in 1991.

Jennifer has exhibited in many public and regional institutions including the Art Gallery of NSW (Sydney), Hazelhurst Regional Gallery (NSW), The Museum of Economic Botany (Adelaide), The Glasshouse Regional Gallery (Port Macquarie), Grafton Regional Gallery (NSW), Orange Regional Art Gallery (NSW), Tweed River Art Gallery (NSW), Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery (NSW), New England Regional Art Gallery (NSW), Casula Powerhouse (NSW), as well as several universities such as the University of Sydney, University of Technology and University of Western Sydney (Sydney), Australian National University (Canberra) and the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne).

In 2019, Newcastle Art Gallery acquired Keeler-Milne’s Desert Rocks – a suite of 18 charcoal drawings. Her work is also held in the collection of the Art Gallery of NSW, Artbank and the Victorian College of the Arts, as well as private collections in London, New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, Paris, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne.

Pam Tippett in ‘Margaret’s House’ – Margaret Olley Centre

Margaret’s pot and vases with paper daisies, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 45 x 45 cm
‘Margaret’s House’
featuring Pam Tippett 
28 October 2020 – Sunday 2 May 2021

Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah

Margaret’s House includes some of the finest examples of Olley’s still lifes and interiors, from public and private collections, alongside new work by three contemporary Australian painters.

Nicholas Harding, Pam Tippett and Adam Pyett were invited to explore the re-creation of Margaret Olley’s home studio, and made new work in response to its intriguing interiors and the incredible collection of objects that Olley collected as subject matter for her paintings.

This intersection of Olley’s home studio, her paintings and the contemporary responses, presents a renewed context for Olley’s practice and the genre of still life painting in Australia today.

About Pam Tippett

Painter Pam Tippett studied at Studio Simi in Florence Italy between 1977 and 1980. Her realist still life paintings depict isolated domestic objects in staged interiors. Tippett has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and internationally in Italy and France. She was awarded the Elizabeth Greenshields Study Grant in 1978 and the Coffs Harbour Eutick Memorial Still Life Award in 2010. Her work is held by several major Australian regional galleries.

To view available works by Pam Tippett, visit our stockroom.

Blue-and-white-striped-jug-2019-25-x-25-4500Margaret’s blue and white striped jug, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 25 x 25 cm

Blue-glass-decanter-25x25-cm-4500Margaret’s blue glass decanter, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 25 x 25 cm

Four-tin-60-x-60-cm-14000Margaret’s white flour tin, jug and fruit bowl with lemons, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 60 x 60 cm

Green-terracotta-double-handled-jug-30-x-30-cm-6000Margaret’s green glazed and terracotta two handled jar, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 30 x 30 cm

Margarets-blue-wine-glass-15x15-cm-2750-e1572836315757Margaret’s blue wine glass, 2019, oil on birch panel, 15 x 15 cm

Margarets-enamel-measuring-jug-15x15-cm-2750Margaret’s enamel measuring jug, 2019, oil on birch panel, 15 x 15 cm

Teal-coffee-pot-30-x-30-cm-6000Margaret’s teal enamel coffee pot, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 30 x 30 cm

Triangular-vase-25-x-25-4500

Margaret’s triangular ceramic vase, 2019, oil on linen on panel, 25 x 25 cm

Rodney Pople – Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 20th Anniversary

Images: Rodney Pople, Horse and figure with pom pom, 2020, scrubbed plywood, nails, screws, brass ,acrylic and cotton, string ,wax and pins, 80 x 58 x 40 cm

Congratulations to Rodney Pople for being selected as a finalist in the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize’s 20th anniversary exhibition for his work Horse and figure with pom pom. 

The Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, presented by Woollahra Council is pleased to announce 56 emerging and established artists as finalists for the 20th annual Prize and exhibition. The 2020 finalist works, by artists from Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Italy, will be presented for the first time in the Woollahra Council’s new purpose-built gallery space, as its inaugural exhibition opening in early 2021. The 56 finalist artist sculptures – each measuring up to 80cm in any dimension – were selected from a record 844 entries by a judging panel comprised of Director Curatorial and Digital, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Dr Lara Strongman, Art Historian/Curator and Industrial Archaeologist Joanna Capon OAM and celebrated artist and fashion designer Jenny Kee AO.

The exhibition will be on view, free to the public, in early 2021 in the new gallery space, Woollahra Gallery at Redleaf. To mark the 20th anniversary there will be an increased total prize pool of $29,000 across four categories. The Prize categories are the main Acquisitive award of $25,000; a Special Commendation award of $2,000; the Viewers’ Choice award of $1,000; and the Mayors Award of $1,000.

Each year the winning work is acquired by Council and forms part of the permanent public collection which is on display all year round for the community to enjoy for free. Visitors can discover some of the world’s most exciting contemporary sculptures and often be introduced to the most innovative artists working in the medium.

To view the finalists in this year’s prize, click here.

“This year’s selection of small sculptures represents a snapshot of the great diversity of art practice in Australia today. From glorious kitsch to conceptual rigour, by way of politics and humour, the Award is a showcase for the creativity of Australian artists—both established and emerging.”

– Lara Strongman, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 20th anniversary judge

“I was impressed by the quality and diverse themes of the entries in a number of different media which embraced a variety of references including the pandemic, ecology, hope and humour.”

– Joanna Capon OAM, Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize 20th anniversary judge

small sculpture 2

About the work

“This work echoes my earlier painting and sculpture that featured figures precariously balanced or upside down. Inverting a figure – whether human, creature or in this case both – invites new perspectives by throwing established readings off kilter. In this work, the status quo is literally turned on its head.

We are living in a topsy-turvy world, through a year of immense social and political change. The sculpture responds to society’s current re-thinking of the world and our relationship with it, past and future, with a deliberately raw sense of immediacy that suggests old structures being usurped.

The protagonists are emblematic, the standing or mounted male figure being ubiquitous in civic spaces across the western world. When turned upside down, the decorative accoutrements of the horse’s carefully groomed tail and rider’s shiny ornament become superfluous in this new reality, left hanging in space.

The work can be interpreted politically as a comment on current shifts in world power, or perhaps on global cultural debates around the fate of colonial statues as people around the world call for recognition and equality. In the end, however, the viewer will bring their own meaning to it: the aim is not to preach but to provoke.”

– Rodney Pople, 2020

About the artist

Rodney Pople is an interdisciplinary artist that works across various mediums such as painting, photography and sculpture. He completed a Diploma of Fine Arts majoring in Photography from the Tasmanian School of Art in 1974 and later studied sculpture at the Slade School of Art in London in 1978 and the New York Studio School in 1979. Pople has exhibited regularly in Australia for over 30 years and has held international solo exhibitions in Berlin and Shanghai. He is a multi-award winning artist who received the 2016 Paddington Art Prize, the 2012 Glover Prize, 2014 Fishers Ghost Prize, 2009 NSW Parliament Art Prize and 2008 Sulman Prize. He was recently a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize, the Muswellbrook Art Prize and the Glover Prize in 2020, as well as the 65th Blake Prize and the Mosman Art Prize in 2018, and has been selected for the Archibald and Wynne Prize over 12 times since 2000. Pople’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and in 2014 his photo-based paintings were held at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne as part of a major solo exhibition. His work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Artbank, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and several regional and university galleries and internationally by MOMA, New York.

Australian Galleries is excited to present a new online works on paper exhibition by Rodney Pople titled ‘Rodney Pople on Paper: 1980 – 2020’, view the exhibition here.

To view available works by Rodney Pople, visit our stockroom.

RODNEY POPLE ON PAPER: 1980 – 2020

Chair, 1983, pencil on paper, 30 x 21 cm

RODNEY POPLE ON PAPER: 1980 – 2020

Australian Galleries (online)

2 – 29 November 2020

View the newly launched online exhibition here.

1980 : Early drawings

When Australian Galleries approached me for an online exhibition. My first thoughts were, “I have no new work… what can one do!” COVID19 has had a few positives and one for me has been looking through my archives of early work. It didn’t take long to realise that I had a vast collection of unseen drawings and an online exhibition seemed the perfect way to bring them into the light. I have selected drawings or works on paper for this show that have never been exhibited.

When I was raking through the work from the 1980’s I was struck by what the work meant for me, many of them in the beginning phases of my painting. I began painting in 1982. In my sketch books of the time I have often scrawled… “to be revisited at a later date” I didn’t expect it to be almost 40 years.

Its been a refreshing time for me I hope whoever views the work feels the same. The drawings selected are important to me as many have been the start of more major paintings and sculpture.

Clock drawing' pen and pencil 21 x30 cm 1983

Clock drawing, 1983, ink and pencil on paper, 21 x 30 cm

1992 : Paris Queens

The 20 Queens Of The Jardin du Luxembourg are monuments to the women — queens, saints, and celebrities — who through their lives and works left their mark on the country. The sculptures were commissioned by Louis-Philippe, King of France from 1830 to 1848. I was interested in doing these drawings of the Queens of Luxembourg gardens apart from the beautiful setting of the sculptures I found them quite powerful once I was in their presence and started doing the drawings. Some of their lives were extraordinary and I tried to capture this in the drawings.

Marie Stuart, Queen of Scots ) Paris 1992

Marie Stuart, Queen of Scots, 1992, coloured pencil on paper, 25 x 21 cm

1992 : Paris watercolour suite

This collection of watercolours were made during my residency at the Cité International des Arts, Paris, during 1992. Many of the works reflect my state of mind at the time and my search for new imagery others are more straight forward observations.

Paris suite 6

Paris Suite 6, 1992, watercolour on paper, 14 x 33 cm

1994 : Chinese paintings and drawings

The paintings were made during my residency in China at the Beijing Art Academy (BAA) in 1994. I was the first Australian to be offered a residency at the BAA. The residency had a profound effect on me and the final exhibition of my work held in Beijing in 1994 was at first controversial with male nudes on show. When the dust settled my exhibition was credited with helping to bridge the gap between East and West and I was made a honorary member of the Beijing Painting Academy.

mop with tap Beijing painting light

Mop with tap, 1994, ink and watercolour on rice paper, 130 x 65 cm

1999 : Etchings and mono prints

I have always found printmaking very exciting… the moment when a freshly inked plate hits the press and lifting up the paper to reveal the image… always a surprise sometimes wonderful and sometimes a challenge. Included in this body of work are 3 photo etchings, the images developed from my photo based paintings. I have added watercolour to enhance the image.

Bicycle with flowers colour plate etching AP 19 x 15 cm 1999

Untitled (Bejing bicycle), 1999, colour plate etching, 19 x 15 cm (image size)

2005 : Piano suite

Set of 6 piano drawings inspired by Beethoven’s last piano. I remember visiting a place which had his last piano and it had a profound effect on me. I have drawn inspiration from Beethoven for years and I love looking at his original manuscripts for my own ideas and stimulation. This suite speaks to me and every time I see them them I am uplifted. The suite of plates were made and painted at La Paloma pottery in Hill End in 2002.

piano2

Piano 2, 2005, ink, pastel and watercolour on Arches paper, 75 x 104 cm

2007 : AGNSW series

This suite of photo based work is from my ongoing series of animals in interiors.I photographed the rooms of the Art Gallery of NSW and worked with Warren Macris at High Res Digital to combine the animal images. The images were then worked with watercolour.

'Wynne prize, AGNSW,' archival ink print, watercolour ( unique state ) 55 x 70 cm. 2007

Wynne Prize, 2007, archival ink print and watercolour on paper, unique state, 55 x 70 cm

2012 : Port Arthur series

This series of small watercolours were conceived and developed on a trip to Port Arthur in 2012 after I had won the Glover prize with a landscape of Port Arthur. I wanted to expand on that painting. I had a hotel by the boundary of Port Arthur and at night I would walk around the grounds of the old prison to absorb the atmosphere. The watercolours were painted over 10 days in my hotel room and were the backbone for, or studies for larger paintings. I personally love these small works as they are so immediate and free.

Church with gunman Port Arthur 2012

Church with gunman, Port Arthur, 2012, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper, 23 x 32 cm

About the artist

Rodney Pople is an interdisciplinary artist that works across various mediums such as painting, photography and sculpture. He completed a Diploma of Fine Arts majoring in Photography from the Tasmanian School of Art in 1974 and later studied sculpture at the Slade School of Art in London in 1978 and the New York Studio School in 1979. Pople has exhibited regularly in Australia for over 30 years and has held international solo exhibitions in Berlin and Shanghai. He is a multi-award winning artist who received the 2016 Paddington Art Prize, the 2012 Glover Prize, 2014 Fishers Ghost Prize, 2009 NSW Parliament Art Prize and 2008 Sulman Prize. He was recently a finalist in the Gallipoli Art Prize, the Muswellbrook Art Prize and the Glover Prize in 2020, as well as the 65th Blake Prize and the Mosman Art Prize in 2018, and has been selected for the Archibald and Wynne Prize over 12 times since 2000. Pople’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney and in 2014 his photo-based paintings were held at the Australian Centre of Contemporary Art, Melbourne as part of a major solo exhibition. His work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; the Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane; Artbank, Sydney; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; and several regional and university galleries.

To view available works by Rodney Pople, visit our stockroom website.

Dianne Fogwell – Artist Feature

The elements carved from lino or wood come together as parts of a larger story – some things stay, others disappear and reappear anew. I have endeavoured to capture that all things pass and that nature is capable, adaptable and able to regenerate into something beautiful and divergent.’
– Dianne Fogwell, 2020

We are incredibly excited to have recently received a series of new linocut and woodcut, works on paper by Canberra-based artist, Dianne Fogwell. An extensive collection of these ethereal works will feature in Dianne’s future solo exhibition, ‘Transience,’ in Melbourne.

Dianne is one of the most respected printmakers and artists book practitioners in Australia. She has been a master printer, and founding director of print studios such as Studio One, Criterion Fine Art Press and Gallery and Lewis Editions.

Dianne’s beautiful new series of linocut and woodcut works on paper are available to view online in the Stock Room gallery. Click here to view more.

501672_UNIQUEImage above: Dianne Fogwell  Together alone  2020  linocut  edition unique  109 x 158 cm

501478_UNIQUEImage above: Dianne Fogwell  Arcadia lost  2020  linocut and woodcut  edition unique  6 panels  474 x 109 cm

501676_UNIQUEImage above: Dianne Fogwell  Egress  2020  linocut and woodcut  edition unique  109 x 79 cm

Artist Feature

In the following blog post, Dianne reflects on her recent work which draws upon her research into the devastation wrought by natural and unnatural fires on the Australian landscape. Featured throughout the post are images of Dianne working on her recent work, Together alone, as well as detailed images of her panoramic work, Arcadia lost.  dianne fogwell 32019 was the tenth anniversary of ‘Black Saturday’ Australia’s deadliest fire. Survivors speak of “being in a war zone,” the noise, the smell, the speed of destruction and the helplessness. “Black Saturday” was an inferno of destruction causing 173 deaths, 2,000 lost homes, left 7,500 homeless, burnt 4000,000 hectares and killed around 1,000,000 animals.
IMG_9544We cry for damage, loss of flora and fauna, donate money and time but still history repeats and I ask myself what have we learnt?dianne fogwell blocks 2This past summer of unprecedented destruction and of being captive to the smoke over Canberra has brought these investigations into a new realm of contemplation for me. Being closed in by smoke so far from the fire line reminds that there is more land than people and forest that is not and never has been empty. 

Kilometres from the devastation of the fire line, the haze and unburnt particles that quietly laid a blanket of smoke over Canberra were ghostly indicators of the turmoil wrought by the fires. These elements made me contemplate the strength and fragility of the materials I use and the images I create. There is an irony to making images about fire, smoke and water – the natural enemies of works on paper, when paper is the essential material of your practice.dianne fogwell 1‘Arcadia Lost’ is a mediation on damage and loss – about the loss of our harmony with nature; the loss of the idea that the forest and land is still always out there waiting for a simple walk in the bush; the loss of the idea that the Australian bush is eternal and invincible. It is a reminder of familiar words, “her beauty and her terror,” that aptly describe how I understand the Australian landscape. In this way the work calls us to strengthen our resolve, do more for our eco-system and enact workable solutions to regenerate both spirit and place.’IMG_9534

IMG_9545Images above: Dianne Fogwell  Arcadia lost  (details)  2020  linocut, woodcut  474 x 109 cmdianne fogwell blocks 3dianne fogwell 4

Printmaking Today

Last year, Dianne was featured in the UK magazine, ‘Printmaking Today,’ in an interview with Nan Mulder.

‘Before, during, after Fogwell seeks to understand not only the moment of destruction, but also the time before and after it. She tries to enter that world on fire, and places herself in the position of the tree, of the bird that loses its habitat, of the insect-ridden earth, which is suffocating under a dust clouds that covers it like a blanket. Her prints of the following year show that moment in nature just before the fire destroys it all. In the huge linocut Portent, birds scatter in panic, while the trees lose their colour. On the left of the print, the ominous sign of things to come is visible in the form of the growing dust clouds of loose topsoil, which are sometimes seen the day before a bushfire.’ – Nan Mulder, 2019. 

To view the full article, click here.

dianne fogwell 2

Rosalind Atkins, Jenny Bell & John Wolseley – Earth Canvas Touring Exhibition

Image: Jenny Bell, Lifeblood, vinyl on hoop pine, 15 panels, 182 x 732 cm (overall)

Earth Canvas Touring Exhibition

featuring Rosalind Atkins, Jenny Bell and John Wolseley

Earth Canvas is delighted to announce that funding has been secured to tour the Earth Canvas exhibition to a range of venues across regional Australia, starting in 2021. After launching at Albury Library Museum (24 October 2020 – 7 February 2021) the exhibition will tour to cultural venues in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and the ACT.

Travelling Exhibition to four states of Australia with artists and Farmers at regional Galleries.

Starts 24th October 2020 at Albury Library Museum in collaboration with the National Museum of Australia ACT.

The Albury Library Museum from October 24 2020 to February 7, 2021

The Swan Hill Regional Art Gallery from March 19 to May 14, 2021

The Riddoch Art Gallery, Mt Gambier from July 16 to August 29, 2021

Mildura Arts Centre from September 16 to November 28, 2021

Riverina Museum Wagga Wagga from December 7 2021 to February 27 2022

The Tamworth Regional Gallery from March 16 to May 5, 2022

Griffith Regional Gallery from June 18 to July 24 2022

Australian National Museum from August 18 to October 30 2022

John W

John Wolseley, What would the world be, once bereft of wet and wilderness? Let them be left, O let them be left, wilderness and wet, Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet – G M Hopkins (2019-20), oil on masonite, 92 x 122 cm

                 6F278D35-EC5D-4D2C-88BE-EF3F5DB06080

Rosalind Atkins, Grass – Black, 2019, monotype, 76.5 x 50 cm