Exhibition 'The Collection'

Currently on show at the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre is the inaugural permanent Collection exhibition which runs from 11th June - 24th July. I am proud and honoured to be part of the collection with a set of 5 'Pods', made from paper, sand and other elements found from nature.

I've been making these Pods for various exhibitions for several years now and they have come to feel like my signature sculptural pieces. Each one having a 'character' of its own and reflecting the colours and textures which I find so exquisite in our landscape. 

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Showing concurrently at the gallery is the 2015 touring Archibald Exhibition with Nigel Milsom's winning portrait titled 'Judo house pt 6 (the white bird)' a striking painting of Charles Waterstreet. My pick of the show would have to go to a small humble self portrait by Leon Hall. Best known for his evocative landscape paintings and figurative drawings, Leon Hall has made a few portraits and self-portraits over the years. ‘I say at the beginning, “I don’t let a good likeness get in the way of a good drawing,”’ says Hall.

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New York 2015

But if I had to choose a single destination where I’d be held captive for the rest of my time in New York, I’d choose the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Tim Gunn

Photographer and friend, Felicity Jenkins, and I visited New York for 3 weeks to soak up art, museums and take photographs. We stayed in Brooklyn, close to Prospect Park, and only a 20 minute subway ride on either the B or Q line into Manhattan. The scale of this city was something I had not completely prepared for. We had been warned to throw out all expectations of seeing everything we wanted to see within our 3 weeks... this turned out to be true. The Metropolitan Museum of Art is so extensive that I could have spent the entire trip exploring this labyrinth alone. On my hit list was; MoMA, The Guggenheim and The Frick Museum. 

I don't think I'll ever forget the experience of turning a corner at the Metropolitan Museum and stumbling across a painting I'd only ever seen in art history books or on a slide at art school. The thrill of being up close and personal to artworks famous for their contribution to art history will never fade. During my visit to New York I stood in front of paintings by Turner, Daumier, Van Gogh, Pollack, Monet, Cézanne just to name a few! In a 'sliding doors' moment, I wondered where I would be in my career as an artist should I have chosen painting as a major at art school and continued on that path. Being amongst such great paintings has inspired me to reacquaint myself with painting in 2016. 

Central Park would also be a highlight of the trip, with its autumn colours still on display and vast walking tracks meandering past lakes, fountains and scenes from movies. With a population of 1.6 million, Manhattan needs a place of calm, beauty and refuge. The park comes alive with buskers of varying talents. One day while walking around the lake, we happened upon a woman requesting a topic for a personalised poem. I offered 'friendship' as a topic and she continued to riff for several minutes then launched into a song. Her energy and joy was infectious and certainly made my day.  

Other places of interest we visited were Coney Island, The Brooklyn Museum, The Lincoln Centre (to watch 'The Nutcracker'), Empire State building, Staten Island, Brighton Beach, The 911 memorial, The Brooklyn Bridge, The Highline, Prospect Park Botanical Gardens and zoo. 

Exhibition Opening: 7th Nov 3-5pm

Lost Bear Gallery is proud to present ‘Trove’, a joint exhibition of works by James Blackwell and Judith Martinez, running from 7 - 30 November. Blackwell has shown at Lost Bear Gallery since 2008. He has had several exhibitions at commercial galleries as well as three major exhibitions at public galleries. At Blackwell’s request, he is showing this year alongside Martinez, who is a more emerging artist. ‘Trove’ represents her first major exhibition. Blackwell and Martinez create distinctly different artwork and yet the collecting and repurposing of materials link their individual practices. For Blackwell, the materials are natural: leaves, seedpods and the like, gathered from the environment that is his inspiration. His painstaking recreation of this trove of materials into complex, enthralling artworks results in a multitude of connotations, from meditation to the cycle of life and death, to our fragile relationship with the natural world. For Martinez, the collecting is of manmade objects such as watch parts and old photographs. These become works of art that explore notions of humanity, memory and determinism. They challenge our ideas of identity and free will. Martinez also explores the trove of memories that form a person’s identity in her photographic work, similarly composed from multiple images. Martinez states that her use of layering “creates visual maps for the viewer to navigate, inviting them to return and decipher the stories within the works.” 

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Exhibition Opening: Lost Bear Gallery Saturday 7th November 3-5pm 98 Lurline Street Katoomba NSW

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My anchor is the landscape in which I live.....the Blue Mountains of NSW. Here, the seasons are distinct, reliable and inevitable. This landscape adapts to the backdrop of seasons and offers inspiration in its repetition and symmetry. A value embodied in the artwork I create.

-JAMES BLACKWELL

I am a collector – in my work I use carefully curated images and objects that are repurposed through photography, digital montage and collage to create stories by layering old and new. The works invite viewers to unlock the narratives embedded within them.

- JUDITH MARTINEZ

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Exhibition - Tracey Deep

Where: Penrith Regional Gallery

When: 30th August - 22nd November 

'Desert Song 2005-2105' Is the current exhibition of works by the ridiculously talented Tracey Deep at Penrith Regional Gallery. If I was to work with natural materials of a larger scale, I'd hope to capture the finesse, beauty and skill of this artist whose collection of artworks on exhibition span a decade of the artists life. The exhibition catalogue says of her practice- 

As an artist, nature is not only her source of inspiration but also her medium and subject matter. She obsessively gathers all sorts of organic detritus such as dried tree branches, seed pods, kelp, raffia, and driftwood and breathes a second life into them, transforming them into ethereal, woven sculptures that enunciate her fascination for the natural world around her.

As the cold winter months slip into the scented new growth of spring, visiting this exhibition is a gentle reminder of the cyclical patterns in nature. A honing  of skills in collaboration with nature present us with a celebration of all that can be found in the natural world. 

Of her childhood, the catalogue essay says- 

As a child, Deep spent most of her time between the park, beach or her backyard, gathering objects that she treasured but whose beauty was easily overlooked by others. Daughter of Lebanese migrants, she grew up behind a green grocer and fondly remembers the sensory excitement of exploring the forms, textures and colours in the shop. Her connection to nature was unescapable.