ARTS ZINE march 2016 by Robyn Werkhoven

studio la primitive

arts zine issue 14 march 2016

slp

studio la primitive EDITOR

Robyn Stanton Werkhoven CONTRIBUTORS

Above: The Prophet - mixed media assemblage, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2013

Bernadette Smith

Glenda Smith

Mark Elliot - Ranken

Brad Evans

Claire Rydell

Terry Fogarty

Gaye Shield

Eric Werkhoven

Lorraine Fildes

Robyn Werkhoven

Nigel Nerd

Ahn Wells

Back to Back Gallery

Timeless Textiles

Nanshe Gallery

Dungog by Design

Front Cover : Screen, oil / canvas 180x90cm Bernadette Smith. Issue 14 - March 2016

INDEX

Equivalence 2

oil/canvas 121 x 152 cm

Editorial………………………… Robyn Werkhoven

SLP Antics………... ………… E&R Werkhoven

Featured Artist ………………… Bernadette Smith

5 - 23

Essay…………………………… Glenda Smith

24 - 25

Featured Artist ………………….Mark Eliott - Ranken

26 - 43

Poetry…………………………… Terry Fogarty

44 - 45

Featured Artist………………… Claire Rydell

46 - 61

Essay…………………………… Eric Werkhoven

62 - 63

Joan Miro Foundation……..……Lorraine Fildes

64 - 81

Poetry…………………………….Brad Evans

82 - 85

Not News……………………… Nigel Nerd

86 - 87

Featured Artist ………………….Gaye Shield

88 - 91

Dungog By Design …………….

92 - 97

ART News……………………….

98 - 119

Back Cover………………………

120

EDITORIAL Greetings to all our ARTS ZINE readers for 2016. Our readership keeps growing and 2016 Arts Zine issues will be featuring many fascinating and informative interviews, articles and great poetry. March issue 14 of STUDIO LA PRIMTIVE ARTS ZINE includes interviews with nationally and internationally recognised Sydney based contemporary artists Bernadette Smith and Mark Elliot - Ranken. We visit France with international photographer Claire Rydell. Lorraine Fildes presents Joan Miroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sculptures at the Barcelona Foundation, Spain. Sadly, our fearless journalist Nigel Nerd has to leave the Arts Zine stable - Nigel has already secured a job in the United

States with great career prospects. He is to be the public relations officer for the Boston Tea Party (initially on secondment to the National Rifle Association). Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss reading our new essays, poetry, art news and information on forthcoming art exhibitions. The ARTS ZINE features professional Hunter Valley, national and international visual artists, poets and writers, glimpses into their world of art and their creative processes. Submissions welcomed, we would love to have your words and art works in future editions in 2016.

Deadline for articles - 15th April for May issue 15 2016. Email: werkhovenr@bigpond.com Regards - your editor Robyn Werkhoven Issue 14 - March 2016

E & R A

N T

I C S The Beach I & II E&R Werkhoven Acrylic on board 120 x 90 cm

E&R ÂŠ 2013

www.studiolaprimitive.net Issue 14 - March 2016

BERNADETTE SMITH

Southerly Change oil on canvas 115 x 112 cm Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

BERNADETTE SMITH - INTERVIEW Bernadette Smith is a practising artist, media producer of online content and art educator who has lived and worked for many years overseas. Academic qualifications include a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute, USA and Bachelor of Education in Art from the University of Newcastle. Her art practice includes painting, photography, film and screen-based art and cultural critique. She has an extensive international exhibition record with work included in collections

in Germany, France, Britain, Australia and the USA. In Singapore her work was exhibited at Art Forum Gallery, Chijmes Caldwell Gallery, and the Australian High Commission.

“My passion for art began when I was given a set of water colours as a child. Its hard to describe my work because of the various media and processes I use, each with their own aesthetic language and philosophical concerns. For many years I was involved with the environment movement in the Hunter and worked within documentary and landscape traditions of photography and film. I have written about this period trying to save Stockton Bight from sandmining which formed a chapter of the book Radical Newcastle published in 2015. An exhibition of my photographs of the Stockton Bight were shown at Newcastle Region gallery during the community push for a Stockton Bight National Park in 1994. I thought then that I was making a difference but I’m beginning to think that framing photographs of beautiful endangered nature and placing them in galleries has minimal effect. Especially now that south of Anna Bay, the coast is becoming the biggest sand mine in the southern hemisphere and nothing is being done to change anything. Such is life in the Hunter I suppose with the world’s largest coal port and soon the biggest sand quarry north of Newcastle”. Issue 14 - March 2016

Stockton Bight Lagoons near Williamtown , Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

Stockton Bight wetlands near Fullerton Cove, cibachrome print 20 x 24â&#x20AC;?, Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

“I turned to experimental photography when the reality of mining became too depressing and retreated into a world of inner vision and personal dreamscapes which I sometimes return to. This body of work uses altered images and celluloid collages made from discarded 35mm slides and movie film which were projected onto people and objects and rephotographed or often directly enlarged and fixed onto photographic paper. These hand made slides were printed on reversal photographic paper such as Ifachrome or Cibachrome when I could get it but the chemicals used aren’t very friendly to people or the environment so perhaps it’s a good thing everything’s going digital but I do miss darkroom photography. I had a solo show of these experimental Cibachromes and my landscapes at Germany’s then largest photography gallery Galerie Kommunale Friedrichshain in Berlin Mitte in 1993 which was a highlight of my art career. I was offered a free apartment and studio in a building that was slated for redevelopment but regretfully I had commitments which made me return to Australia. Berlin Mitte back then was like a big art party happening almost every night on just about every street with pop up galleries everywhere. The only other experience that comes close to that natural high was

Newcastle’s Star Hotel in the seventies (another chapter I wrote in Radical Newcastle). Those were heady days but it couldn’t last when neo-Liberalism arrived “binding with briars our joys and desires” as William Blake would say.”

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Security rephotographs, Fuji chrome print dimensions variable , Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

Liquid Fire, altered slide printed on Fujichrome paper, Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

“I had difficulty at first making the transition from analogue to digital media so I returned to my painting practice which I had first started out with as an artist. Then for several years I explored the viscous qualities of impasto oil paint applied with a painting knife or whatever came to hand. Being sensitive to solvents meant that I couldn’t thin down the paints so that dictated my technique. I didn’t know then that my work could be described as a form of New Materialism but there was always the influence of water and trees

even though my paintings were outwardly abstract. Perhaps my painting was haunted by the wanton destruction of southern Stockton Bight dunes and hinterland that I had earlier witnessed. My partner Mark Elliot-Ranken and I moved to Sydney in 2011 to be closer to the eastern suburbs art market.”

When Dart Energy proposed a coal seam gas mine less than a kilometre from where we lived I became active again in the environment movement as the official photographer for Stop CSG Sydney.

I have a protest photography blog at http://australiandocumentaryphotos.blogspot.com.au

And here is a link to a free pdf you can download showing some of the protests I documented against coal and coal seam gas from our campaigns at https://www.dropbox.com/s/q2halty4ksh5uzi/CityandCountryUnitedAgainstCoalandCSG.pdf?dl=0 Whether my documentary photography is art I’ll leave that for others to decide.

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Emergenceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

oil on canvas, 122 x 122 cm , Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The environment movement has become rightly concerned about the viability of mining our water catch-

ments and the implications for water sustainability. This has influenced my current art photography practice which engages with the theme of water and the Anthropocene or the onset of mass species extinction from human induced climate change. From earlier experience I realised that it was important to get this art out of the gallery and into the street so in January 2015 I did a public art commission for the Newtown Art Seat which focused on the need to protect our rainwater on its passage through gutters and drains to the sea. It

was a magical realism panorama where harbour water dissolved into the sea emphasising that water is the source of all life and must be respected. Then later I was commissioned by Leichardt Council to do an outdoor installation next to Hawthorne Canal which placed photographic stickers on bridges and walls showing tidal changes within the canal to raise awareness of the flow patterns of our urban creeks.â&#x20AC;?

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Secrets of the Tide, detail of photo media installation at Hawthorne Canal for Art on the Greenway 2015. - Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

‘Pool Rules’ mixed media installation detail

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“Recently I began a Master of Art by Research at Sydney College of the Arts and have been involved more

with installation art and the performative aspects of photography. While imaging water sustainability has been the main focus of my art interventions I have also engaged in other questions of equity and access such as ageism and ablism in public pools in Sydney. In my last group show at Articulate Project Space in Sydney I collected correspondence between a swimmer with disabilities complaining about discrimination and the response from pool management. Interspersed with this was semi-abstract photographic

meditations on the patterns of light on pool water and a protest banner demanding equal access. This banner was taken along to public demonstrations and people were asked to pose in front of it if they agreed with the anti-ablism message and then these photos were used in the installation as well. Some of the feedback I had was that it was part John Baldessari and part 1920’s avant-garde formalism. Some thought it was funny while others felt indignant and angry so I don’t know if this means it was really bad art or not.”

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My upcoming installation come performance is in partnership with Mark Elliot-Ranken at Wollongong’s ‘Nocturnal Arts’ festival starting the last week of February. I am creating a ‘Climate Altar’ alluding to how

nature has been sacrificed on the altar of progress. Rainwater patterns backlit by eerily lit plastic plant lanterns will be placed on an ironic altar outside a church. In an interesting twist the minister of this neo-Gothic style United Church had specifically picked my proposal from among several finalists to be matched with for this place making festival. They said they were keen to enliven the church’s participation and relevance to the living art and culture of Wollongong. This progressive attitude to contemporary art

certainly makes a refreshing change from the ubiquitous plaster cast statues displayed in many Newcastle churches.

The other art project I am currently working on is to create a line of clothing and visual aids for water quality activists. I am funding a trial run through Chuffed crowdfunding platform and if anyone would like to help here is the website https://chuffed.org/project/visual-aids-for-water-conservation-activists

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Newtown Art Seat - Photograph Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2015 Issue 14 - March 2016

Activist agit prop used at 100th vigil outside AGL head-

Art on the Greenway installation detail by Bernadette

quarters in 2015 part of Visual Aids for Water Activists

Smith part of Leichardt Open Studio Trail 2015

project.

All photographs Bernadette Smith ÂŠ 2016

http://bernadettesmithart.blogspot.com.au/ Issue 14 - March 2016

Will books become obsolete? - Glenda Smith I remember an astonishing statement in a ‘cutting edge’ University lecture in the 1970’s – that books would

be obsolete by the end of the century. The concept was unthinkable – by me and many others – but obviously not by technology-minded pioneers. E-readers and i-pads have made steady ground in the reading world, but the century has passed and books, thankfully, are still with us. Bookshops are certainly under threat of obsolescence, with many large chains closing, but books themselves (and second-hand bookshops) are still very popular, as are on-line book sales. Books will never be obsolete while there is a demand for them, and that demand is still strong. There is a satisfying simplicity about reading a book. In bed; in the bath; at the beach; at a bus stop or on a train, a book can be picked up and put down with ease; left behind if it is finished or cumbersome; borrowed or received as a gift, and shared with others by passing from hand to hand.

When I was in Strasbourg with a friend earlier this year, we discovered to our delight, in the magnificent park called l’Orangerie, a ‘book shelter’ where books could be left or taken freely. We happily browsed along with others, and took several books. The majority were in French but there were also some in English.

My favourite was a small volume on Caravaggio, which included many reproductions of his

paintings. Issue 14 - March 2016

In the spirit of the book shelter I left it with a friend who admired it. I also gave her several books Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d taken to France or bought while there to read and then take to the book shelter. We were thrilled to be part of this benevolent continuum of give and take, and I know there have been similar set-ups in various places in Australia. While books continue to lend themselves to this kind of generous and thoughtful sharing, they will never be obsolete. Electronic books are cheap and convenient, but a book has its own integrity. It has shape, heft and colour; it gives you a tactile sense of progress and completion; and it encapsulates its own history in the form of publication details and blurbs, but also the wear and tear of reading.

Libraries have accommodated

e-books very effectively, but the contemplation of a catalogue does not compare with the physical pleasure of handling a book. This is particularly true of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s books, where the brightness and texture are a large part of the joy of reading, or being read to. Books may take up space and gather dust, but I believe they will be with us for some time to come because of their versatility, and the loyalty of book-lovers. patience, but not technological know-how.

Reading a book requires light, but not power; and

However, technology is making welcome and essential

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Mark Elliot-Ranken

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INTERVIEW - Dr. MARK ELLIOT- RANKEN Sydney based artist Dr Mark Elliot-Ranken has been working as an artist and arts educator for three decades both within Australia and internationally. His work has been collected by public and private collectors such as the Earl Lew collection in Singapore, the Prudential collection, USA and IGL Australia.

When did your artistic passion begin? “ I don’t think I was ever without the passion since I first felt that tingle which comes from mark making. The first serious memory I have of that was I think about seven when drawing & I remember both that

drawing and the sensation that this was what I needed to do. That’s has remained with me all my life that tingle; it’s a necessity for me a need. I grew up on Sydney’s northern beaches which are very like Newcastle. Early on I was interested in the arts of all types. Being from Narrabeen I naturally went surfing, swimming and sailing and all things maritme. Later I live on boats for a period as well as teaching Art in various places such as PNG, Singapore

and Darwin lecturing sessionally at Charles Darwin University and University of Newcastle. I’ve always been restless. Living overseas as opposed to just travelling through such places gives insights both of the localle, wherever you are as well as of yourself. One turns one’s gaze back on yourself in a most strange way & become just a little ‘other’ to yourself.” Opposite page: The Salt Sea Road: acrylic on canvas1600 x 1800mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken © 2012

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Describe your work:

“This is a tricky question to answer. Over nearly thirty-five years of creating I’ve dabbled in film, video, photography, installation/ performance and 3D works but ultimately I’ve come back to painting in various

forms. Not all on canvas as the work ‘The Navigators’ shows. It’s a strange process but that’s Art anyway. Always I come back to coloured muds on a surface using sticks with hair stuck on them as well as scrapers, brooms, rags & anything that comes to hand really, including my hands. I am always looking for that strange moment when one moves into an alternative space of creative action & the work tells one what to do then it’s really working.

Since finishing the PhD in 2010 at Newcastle I have worked steadily on canvases ranging from usually 1.5m x 1.5m through to bigger, triptychs, diptychs multi panel works etc. The last four years have been processes of simplification, eliminating things I no longer feel are needed in the work though this can also reverse itself on occasion. I work in acrylic as well as on paper when travelling, I never photograph anymore as I find it gets in the way of memory for me, another filter I don’t need. Curiously I find writing becoming more important.”

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Deep Blue: acrylic on canvas 1500 x 1500 mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2014 Issue 14 - March 2016

“My work is non-figurative though I don’t regard it as pure abstract. I work with memory, language and the experiences of my life.

Mostly I am concerned with the idea of a canvas as a space of enigmatic

encounters and motion a space where it is possible to explore the relationship between our inner terrain & the external contexts of such experiences I have had, how that interaction creates the space in which I/we exist. I usually build up surfaces through layers of paint and wash then scrapping back with a variety of tools I find. The colours tend to be muted though not always. The mark making process is very important and I often push my canvases to destruction & then work to find something within that detritus & build on that.

Though I may start with a thumbnail sketch or a phrase even a snatch of prose from a poem from someone such as Cavafy I don’t really have a preconceived idea anymore when I start, its like plunging into the deep end of the pool while others stick their toes in around the edge. All the senses have to be working it’s a journey an exploration of the ‘not known’ that which can be perceived and is liminal, but not named indeed

resists naming & therefor categorising and archiving.”

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What inspires you? “Living, history, myth, the peripheral, archaeology, the mysterious, and the political, the journey as passage of light and dark the not known but liminal. Creation, destruction and re-creation. I start from the premise that art is a verb not a noun. The act of creation is the meaning for my work it is the doing that’s important. The work itself in that sense is just a sign, a waypoint along the way. To find just what this action is doing then one must recognise, develop and free one’s own language of creation which as Herbert Read stated is independent of the verbal or textural based language of our everyday lives. It has its own imperatives and creates its own vocabulary one moreover not bound by any rules of a grammar and not primarily about communication but exploration of the not known, a different terrain.

It also is an

untamed lexicon capable of biting, challenging and discomforting in its restlessness…it is political in the

broadest sense of the word drawn from the concept of the ‘polis’ as a living social and cultural entity based on communality. To understand this one needs a ‘nomad strategy’ of movement as I explored in my PhD thesis. Otherwise I’m a bit of a bowerbird of influences & am constantly on the lookout for arresting things both physical,

metaphysical and everything in between.” Issue 14 - March 2016

Limitless: acrylic on canvas 1450 x 2000mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2014 Issue 14 - March 2016

What is your greatest achievement?

“I think just to still be working as an Artist. It’s a sad fact that its not the easiest of lives one really does forego a lot for this as every artist will know. There is very little of what could be called security & I know personally many artists who really struggle just to keep going & it has not gotten any easier since I began. Luckily my partner Bernadette Smith is also an artist so we support each other through thick & thin but it doesn’t get any easier even though I am having a modicum of success. It’s always a struggle to survive, just keeping going, a thick skin, keen sense of the ridiculous and frugality help.

I worry about emerging artists at this time as circumstances have gotten harder I think. The parlous state of arts education in this country at the moment is a disgrace & the opportunities to just survive have taken a nosedive in the last decade. Our position as the creative edge of our culture and this is an article of faith for me, is now barely tenable but really needed in a society so conservative, materialist and all too frequently vindictively conformist.

I know that the Internet has expanded; indeed created great networking

opportunities but the commercialisation of the arts is especially intense in our current circumstances. Beware of the ‘creative industries’ concept its industrial without being creative!”

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The Salt Sea Road: acrylic on canvas 1600 x 1800mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2012 Issue 14 - March 2016

What are you working on at present?

“I usually have a couple of irons in the fire. I just finished a diptych for a client with the usual interesting stuff that happens with commissions, Bernadette & I have a project using installation, light & a bit of performance but I will let Bernadette tell you about that as she instigated it. I have a number of works I want to either start or keep working on. I’m always trying to push the boundaries a bit with painting otherwise it can rapidly become repetitive though painting always has a way of letting you know when to change.

I am also looking for venues to show my ongoing nomadic installation ‘The Navigators’ by

travelling to several different places to set it up in different locales. Other than that just seeing what comes along especially trying for a few artist’s in residence opportunities.”

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Infinite: acrylic on canvas 1200 x 1200mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2013 Issue 14 - March 2016

Your future aspirations with your art?

That’s like reading the crystal ball, as we have moved to Sydney in 2011 & now have our studio permanently in Alexandria & live inner city my aspirations for my art are really tied up with family &

opportunities.

Lets face it one moves to the metropolis to further one’s aims on all fronts. I don’t always

find a lot of what is produced in Sydney all that interesting & it’s a very commercially orientated place. In fact it’s a bit shallow at times, too much ‘art as entertainment’ and not enough bite! But there are still pockets of interest.

Personally I would like to travel again with Bernadette & my daughter especially to

Europe in this time of ferment in the continent. I draw so much from journeys & my current artist’s journal

seems a little stuck which is always an indicator of some sort of change being needed! I’m always looking for the chance encounter that fire’s me up.

As for the art itself, who can tell? Art has a way of laying little spoors to follow I find so we will just have to see where that goes. I’m looking at a canvas at the moment, which badly went flat in December & just starting to get some feelings of possibilities for it. My biggest aspiration is simply to keep working as an artist, it’s a privilege & a difficult pleasure as Whitely supposedly once said.

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Inflexion: acrylic on canvas 1500 x 1500mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2015 Issue 14 - March 2016

Forthcoming Exhibitions?

“Hmmm? When we first moved here we had five exhibitions in three years, you know just how much work & commitment that takes. However the exhibition scene is changing. So much is now being done via the

net & I am dealing a lot with several agents who move the work for me, that’s how I got the commission. It does sound a bit commercial & it can be but that really is the way things are going & as always keeping viable is a struggle. Galleries are also opening and closing all the time & several I know of have now stopped having an exhibition space or back rooms. They use the net or have pop ups & that also creates quite a bit of fluidity.

The shows I am working in have been in fact installation type projects in collaboration with Bernadette & that to me is quite interesting because it gets me out of the studio & into a different space of possibilities.

I am however talking to a few spaces & people so hopefully something will resolve itself soon but I’m in no hurry for a solo exhibition (yet).”

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Salt: acrylic on canvas 1500 x 1500mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2010 Issue 14 - March 2016

Other interests?

“Earlier in my personal and artistic development the latest shiny new thing that came along could easily distract me because I am a bit of a bowerbird not so much for objects but experiences and insights. It’s

because I have a low tolerance for boredom, so I have learnt in the last few years to concentrate on going deeper into things & dealing with what needs to be done and the PhD was very instrumental in that change. Other interests are closely tied to that new learnt discipline, its not easy. I am always looking for the chance encounter, the intersects of life that supply one with the raw material of what I do, & chance makes no mistakes it will always throw up something, the trick is to see the gold from the dross, lots of that

Web site: www.smithrankenarts.com www.artscope.com.au/MER Blog: artbymark.elliot-ranken.blogspot.com

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TERRY FOGARTY

Terry is an author and poet who lives in Sydney, Australia.

Terry’s poetry is both philosophically eclectic yet seamless. Grounded in place, personality and time he braids literary tapestries that can be both confronting yet calming. Recurrent themes from theatres of the absurd are

seasoned with frailties of written expression where he often subpoenas truth. Terry is the author of ‘Voices of the Northern Shore, a literary gazetteer of the authors and poets of the northern shore of Sydney Harour.

THE COMING TIDE (OF LOVE) Terry Fogarty

Scuttering Like black leaves Fighting the wind Seared faces Clumped by anger Fright, fear Seeking martyrdom Hands empty Chests full of Bravado

Lightly she descends Embracing evil Clasping good Melding Minds kindle Fingers link Love bleeds - Terry Fogarty ÂŠ 2016

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CLAIRE RYDELL

Eiffel Tower, Paris Claire Rydell ÂŠ 2016

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CLAIRE RYDELL Claire Rydell is a freelance photographer specializing in travel and nature. As a world traveller, she has spent time documenting life in Russia, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, the Philippines, India, Nepal, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Europe, Australia, Canada and America. She has a

large portfolio of architectural images and ancient sites. Claire has been a professional photographer since 1984 and holds a degree in photojournalism from Pierce College. She has had ten solo exhibitions of her art photography in the States and abroad. Her work is represented by Photo Library in New York. In addition to photography, Claire is a professional musician in Los Angeles.

INTERVIEW: â&#x20AC;&#x153;I grew up in Evanston, Illinois, moved to Los Angeles to study conducting and composition and received a

degree in music from UCLA. Currently, I teach music in the community college district, run a concert series, conduct several choirs, act as the music director at St. James Presbyterian Church, write and arrange music for my Early Music Ensemble and other musicians, teach and play cello, piano, sing and lead a band. One of my greatest pleasures is getting together with friends to play chamber music.â&#x20AC;? Issue 14 - March 2016

I trained in photography at Pierce College and finished a degree in Photojournalism. While still in school, I was very lucky to receive my first solo show and presented a series of images shot in China in 1983.”

“Culture has always interested me and everywhere I go I try to find beautiful light that expresses the quality

of the place I’m visiting. I find the history of a location fascinating and think it adds to the experience of capturing a moment in an image. The images I’ve chosen to share were shot in France last summer with a Nikon D200 or an I Pad mini. We toured the fascinating chateau region where the rich and titled lived and spent their summers in the 17th century, went north to Normandy, visited Chartres, Giverny and Beaune before approaching the Alps from lovely Annecy. I live in the San Fernando Valley with my husband, composer Paul Reale, and our 12 feral cats. The cats were wondering why they aren’t in any of the pictures since I photograph them all the time. Maybe there will be another opportunity! “ To view more of my images please visit my website -

http://www.minotaurz.com/photoz Issue 14 - March 2016

Guardroom.

Kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s bedroom room.

Dining room.

The attic.

Chateau Usse`

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Chateau Ussé “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair!” Although that line is from a different fairy tale, this tower at Chateau Ussé provided inspiration for Charles Perrault’s story of Sleeping Beauty written in the 1696. When

you visit the castle, there are costumed mannequins in many rooms making it easy to imagine the way a place used to look. The guardroom was the first room visitors to the castle would enter with its high vaulted trompe l’oeil ceiling and magnificent collection of weaponry, costumes and artifacts. In the 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIV, a bedroom in the chateaux was always ready in case the king wished to visit and stay overnight. A bolt of cloth in “oriental” style was found in the dusty attic and helped reconstruct fabrics in the red bedroom in 1995.

The formal dining room is still used by the family of the Duc de Blacas who owns Chateau Ussé. The furniture is in the Louis XV style and has been handed down through the years since the 1700’s. The attic is the oldest part of the castle and dates back to medieval times. It contains household objects, furniture and discarded artifacts. Issue 14 - March 2016

Chateux Chenonceau

Formal Gardens, Chateau Villandry

Tree lined entrance avenue, Chateau Chenonceau.

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Chateaux Chenonceau, Chaumont & Villandry Catherine de Medici had a troubled marriage with King Henry II. His mistress, Diane de Poitiers, built the famous bridge on the River Cher at Chateau Chenonceau. Henry gave her the chateau by royal decree and boldly gave her a bedroom in full view of his wife. When Henry had his eye gouged in a joust and died, Catherine, now the ruler of France, threw her rival out of Chenonceau trading it for Chauteau Chaumont. Chenonceau must have reminded Catherine of the reflected bridge over the Arno river in her beloved Florence. She reportedly gave lavish parties for 1,000 people that cost so much money she had to ask the

Italian government to help pay the bill. Poor Diane de Poitiers, banished to her own chateau, it doesn’t look she could have suffered much in such splendor.

The ornamental gardens at Chateau Villandry symbolise “tender love,” “passionate love,” “flighty love,” and “tragic love”. The chateau was the last of the great chateaux to be built on the river Loire and dates to around 1536.

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Abbey Mont St Michel

Lily pond - Giverny

Red Poppies - Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s garden.

Monetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s house and roses - Giverny

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Mont St-Michel and Giverny The unique abbey at Mont Saint Michel dates back to 708 and has been a focus of pilgrimage ever since. The monastery is dedicated to the Archangel Michael whose name means “like unto God.” Michael’s scales

judge the souls of the dead (Daniel: 5:27.) His sword leads the heavenly militia and he slays the dragon (the devil) in the book of Revelations 12: 7-9. Michael will sound the last trumpet on the Day of Resurrection (I Corinthians 15:52). The abbey proved impossible to capture despite many wars since it is like a fortress built on granite and is completely surrounded by the wild sea at the full moon.

Giverny, the home of painter Claude Monet, makes a lovely side trip outside of Paris. The painter created a magnificent series of gardens where he spent his life outdoors painting his most famous and celebrated works. The lily pad garden has an arbour and the iconic green bridge at the other end. Monet’s pink house is flanked by pink roses pruned into trees. Red poppies are an important element in the Impressionist paintings created in Monet’s gardens.

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Da Vinci tomb.

Mona Lisa, Louvre Museum

Amboise Castle, Da Vinci tomb.

Abduction of Mona Lisa cartoon.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Da Vinci in Amboise Mona is in the bathroom? Have you ever wondered why the Mona Lisa, painted in Italy by Leonardo da Vinci, is in France? It turns out that 20 year old King François admired 69 year old Leonardo, and in 1516

appointed him “First painter, engineer and King’s architect” and invited him to come spend what would be his final three years in Amboise living in the Chateau de Clos Lucé. Da Vinci brought Mona Lisa with him and Francis placed the most famous painting in the world in his bathroom! (He must have had a lot of art and couldn’t find a suitable place to display her.)

Da Vinci’s burial place in the chateau at Amboise was identified and confirmed years later by relics related to the painter apostle Luke. (For example, Luke’s attribute, the winged ox, and artist’s brushes are found where many artists lie entombed). Luke’s paintings are the reason we know what Jesus looked like and his image has remained consistent through thousands of years. There is a famous painting by Rogier van der Weyden from 1435

depicting Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin Mary.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Annecy, Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Can Can

Annecy is a gateway town to the French Alps. The 12th century Palais de l’Ile in the cobblestoned Old Town has been a prison, a courthouse and a mint. The iconic Eiffel Tower, symbol of France, was conTowers, Notre Dame Cathedral.

structed by Gustave Eiffel out of wrought iron as the entrance to the 1889 World’s Fair. The Fair marked the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. It was the tallest structure in the world for 41 years. One cannot imagine Paris without the Eiffel Tower’s imposing size

and strength visible from so many locations in town.

Prison 12th Century, Annecy.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Medieval Paris is embodied in the Gothic towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral built in 1163 in the center of Paris. Victor Hugoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s novel The Hunchback of Notre

Dame was inspired by this great building in which Quasimodo rings the bells in the tower. A gargoyle looks out on the city of Paris from the Can Can costume.

balcony in Notre-Dame Cathedral. Evocative of French cabaret music, this costume is associated with the rhythmic energy of the Can Can dance popular in music halls in the 1840â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. Artists such as Toulouse Lautrec drew and painted women lifting their skirts and kicking their legs in unison to the beat of the Jacques Offenbach melody.

Gargoyle gazing on Paris, Notre Dame.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Beefsteak Tomatoes.

French cheeses.

Calvados Brandy, Cognac.

Meat for sale.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Food and Drink France is well known for its fine cuisine. In Normandy, there are delicious ciders, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, made from the local apples. Visitors enjoy the great macarons (chestnut delights), delicious

nougat pastries, cheeses, fine meats, patĂŠs and beefsteak tomatoes. Of course, everyone in the world associates France with great wine and cognac! Bon appetit!

Claire Rydell clrydell@minotaurz.com All photographs ÂŠ 2016 Claire Rydell All International Rights Reserved Issue 14 - March 2016

Sculptures - Eric Werkhoven

www.studiolaprimitive.net

Issue 14 - March 2016

ERIC WERKHOVEN ESSAY.

To settle back into this place that holds the reins, from which we proceed to unravel its ancient reactions, at loss in how to proceed, and yet we intuitively reach for the right clue. Words fluttering out of grotesque, conglomerate clouds, in the much wider open space. If I could once again present myself before these tall figure heads, and rake the debris that falls onto the mosaic floor. Spokesperson for the reindeer, the wild boar and numerous outlandish insects. To find my own place in the scheme of things. Where you may also seek to employ these mandatory eclipses, pass many faraway heavenly bodies. A banquet of sumptuous fine tastes and piquant sounds, fill our needs before we go any further. The skull broken into segments, crushed by the weight of its own unbearable longing

- Eric Werkhoven ÂŠ 2016

Issue 14 - March 2016

Joan Miro Foundation Barcelona

Lorraine Fildes Issue 14 - March 2016

Joan Miro Joan Miro (1893-1983) is considered to be amongst the most versatile and important masters of 20th century art. Only Picasso approached Miro in the range of materials he used to make pictures, sculptures,

ceramic designs, stage sets and prints. Miro is often described as a Spanish Surrealist, but his work shows he creatively combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. Active in Paris from the 1920s, and influenced by Surrealism, Miró developed a style of biomorphic abstraction to blend abstract figurative motifs with large fields of colour and primitivist symbols. (Biomorphism is a 20th century art movement that places elements of design on patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms.)

Miró was among the first artists to develop automatic drawing as a way to undo previous established painting techniques and thus represented the beginning of Surrealism as an art movement. (Automatic drawing was a surrealist development to express the subconscious.) However, Miró chose not to be an official member of the Surrealists, thus being free to experiment with other artistic styles.

He pursued his own interests in art, ranging from automatic drawing and surrealism, to expressionism and Colour Field painting. Miró often worked with a limited palette, yet the colours used were bold and expressive. His chromatic explorations emphasized the potential of fields of unblended colour to respond to each other, providing inspiration for a generation of Colour Field painters. (Colour-field painting – a style of American abstract painting prominent from the late 1940s to the 1960s featuring large expanses of

unmodulated colour covering most of the canvas.) Issue 14 - March 2016

Personnage, 1970 Bronze

200 x 120 x 90 cm

An important patinated bronze â&#x20AC;&#x153;Personnageâ&#x20AC;?,

cast in 1970, comprises a pebble placed on an almond, enlarged 15 times. Glinting in the spring sun, this owl-like form, with eyes hollowed out of the pebble and pitted almond-skin,

wonderfully

eccentric

welcoming figure as you arrive at the Foundation in Barcelona.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Miro’s art was an inspiration for many Abstract

“People will gradually understand better that I

Expressionists painters such as Arshile Gorky,

opened the doors to a different future, a future

Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko. Miró never

without false doctrines or fanaticisms."

resorted to complete abstraction.

He devoted his

career to exploring means to dismantle traditional

ways of representation. His radical, inventive style was a critical contributor in the early 20th

avant-

garde artistic journey towards increasing abstraction. Miró

balanced

spontaneity

and

encouraged by the Surrealists -

automatism

with meticulous

planning and rendering to produce art works that, because of their precision, seemed representational despite a considerable level of abstraction. Miro is quoted as saying:

In many interviews Miró expressed contempt for conventional painting as being a way of supporting bourgeois society. Miró's oft-quoted interest in the assassination of painting is derived from a dislike of bourgeois art, which he believed was

used to promote propaganda and cultural identity among the wealthy. Miró responded to Cubism – which had become an established art form in France. At the time he is quoted as saying "I will break

their

guitar,"

referring

Picasso's

"The works must be conceived with fire in the soul

paintings, intending to attack the popularity and

but executed with clinical coolness."

appropriation of Picasso's art by politics.

“I try to apply colours like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music.”

Issue 14 - March 2016

Personnage II, 1982 Painted bronze 218 x 47 x 41,5 cm

A red and yellow painted “Personnage”, assembled from the lid of a wheat canister, a chopping block and a rake, recalls Miro’s delight in rustic objects.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Miró also expressed his dislike for art critics, saying

At a certain moment, you must prune. I work like

they "are more concerned with being philosophers

a gardener or a wine grower.”

than anything else. They form a preconceived opin-

1959.

— Joan Miró

ion, then they look at the work of art. Painting merely serves as a cloak in which to wrap their emaciated philosophical systems.”

Miró, like the surrealists, believed that "beauty will be convulsive, or it will not exist". One way to

Miro’s work is firmly optimistic and basically derived

create convulsive (irrational) beauty was to make

from the observation of the world around him. He ad-

strange, inexplicable objects from stuff found in

mired nature and was inspired by everyday objects

flea markets – the artist did not choose the ingre-

and their beauty. He saw everything in the universe

dients; they chose the artist. In 1936, Miro stuck

as alive and part of a great interconnected totality. He

together a stuffed green parrot, a doll's shoe, a

was a gardener who simply had to open himself up to

hat and a map to evoke an elusive dream. His

and cultivate the inherent power of the materials

three-dimensional dream art is just as vivid as his

themselves, using his studio as a kitchen garden and

paintings. Works that are made essentially of

his art works as plants that grew under his expert

1930s bric-a-brac are too fragile to go on loan (to

care.

see his parrot, visit the Museum of Modern Art in

“I think of my studio as a vegetable garden. Here,

New York), but in later life, at his studio in Mallor-

there are artichokes. Over there, potatoes. The

ca, Miró translated the rough and ready surrealist

leaves have to be cut so the vegetables can grow.

object into permanent bronze. Issue 14 - March 2016

Jeune fille s'évadant (Girl Escaping), 1967

Painted bronze 166 x 31 x 58,5 cm

“Jeune fille s’évadant”, has a water hydrant as a hair-do, with sponges for a torso placed above sexy red mannequin’s legs. The mixture of incongruous elements is as surprising and erotic as in any surrealist work.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Miro saw sculpture as a way of taking art to every-

“I am an established painter but a young

one, saying: “I want to try… to go beyond easel

sculptor,” quoted from the ageing Miró. In

painting… and get nearer to the masses of whom I

seeking the challenge of a new medium, the

have never ceased to be aware.”

elderly artist was innovative, energetic and true

In 1975 Miró demonstrated his devotion to Spain

to himself in his sculptural experiments. As early

with the donation of the Miró Foundation to the city of Barcelona. The building, which houses his works plus exhibitions of other artists, was designed by the artist's great friend, Josep Lluis Sert. The Barcelona

as 1941 Miró predicted that “it is in my sculpture that I will create a truly phantasmagoric world of living monsters; what I do in painting is more conventional.”

Foundation has a wonderful collection of Miro’s

The extraordinary wealth of Miró’s sculpture,

artworks.

should not be overlooked. Though generally less

Key sculptural works are set on the roof of the

known and critically examined than his painting,

Foundation building. The exhibition fulfils the artist’s

Miró

desire that “sculpture must stand in the open air, in

important.

the middle of nature”. As you can see from the

artefacts – bowls, a tap, worn soap, tin-cans, a

photographs the cityscape, architecture of the roof

pebble, a hand-woven basket – they speak of his

and trees provide the artist’s desire to have natural

profound respect for humanity.

considered

his

sculpture

equally

Often assembled from humble

surroundings for his sculptures.

Issue 14 - March 2016

La Caresse d'un oiseau (The Caress of a Bird), 1967. Painted bronze 311 x 110 x 48 cm

This sculpture is constructed from found objects, cast in bronze and brightly

painted.

assembled

from

outhouse seat and an ironing board for the body and legs with a pair of miniature soccer balls at the back representing female buttocks. The head

is a donkey's straw hat whilst the turtle shell represents the female genitals. This sculpture has been compared to a "totem of female sexuality".

Issue 14 - March 2016

. Miró’s sculptures show how the challenge of a new

Miró’s sculptures only add to his reputation. His

medium inspired him in his final years. Late work by

bronzes are just as bizarre and hard to pin down

great artists – Monet’s lilies, Matisse’s cut-outs,

as his earlier works. His metal sculptures are

David Hockney’s east Yorkshire – often mesmerise

cast from the same kinds of assemblages of

the viewer. Here is the distillation of a lifetime’s

ordinary things that he made in the 30s. Rather

experience, plus a move to a new direction, but

than moving to complete abstraction, Miró's

primarily the overwhelming energy and optimism of

forms remained within the bounds of objectivity.

the artist. The sculptures Miró made in his seventies

However, they are forms of pure invention, made

and eighties have all these qualities. The paint, shiny

expressive and imbued with meaning through

household enamel, does

their combination with other forms and the artist's

more than

underline

connections between Miró as sculptor and painter.

use of colour.

Picasso said that “sculpture is the best comment a

In Barcelona, don’t miss visiting the Miro Founda-

painter can make on his paintings” and certainly

tion. Jump in the city “Hop on Hop off” bus and

Miró’s painting sensibility dominate his sculptures.

you will be dropped right at the entrance.

For example, in “Jeune fille s’évadant”, a water

After visiting the Foundation take the bus to Parc

hydrant is a hair-do, with sponges for a torso placed

de Joan Miró which is right in the heart of

above sexy red mannequin’s legs. The mixture of

Barcelona. Here you will see the installation of

incongruous elements is as surprising and erotic as

the monumental sculpture Woman and Bird. In

in any surrealist work.

1982 the Parc de Joan Miró was created from the

former site of the city slaughterhouse. Issue 14 - March 2016

Sun, Moon and One Star, 1968 Bronze and painted cement

364 x 104 x 97 cm

Study for a monument offered to the city of Barcelona. Issue 14 - March 2016

Femme et oiseau (Woman and Bird), 1967 Painted bronze

120 x 48,2 x 45 cm

The black patent leather tricornio hat of Spain’s guardia civil, a

symbol of authority in Franco’s republic, is transformed here by Miró’s imagination into the body of a bird. Among the other elements of Femme et oiseau are a four-legged stool, here painted pitch black, the sawn-off end of a cylindrical container, here in rich blue, is the head.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Porte I (Door 1), 1974 Bronze 252 x 118 x 105,5 cm

Made from an assemblage of

found objects such as gloves, dishes and other items which are then cast in bronze.

Issue 14 - March 2016

Femme (Woman) (All three sculptures are called Woman), 1978 Enameled stoneware, 160 x 90 x 91 cm

Issue 14 - March 2016

Monsieur, Madame (Sir, Madam), 1969 Painted bronze 69 x 37 x 37 cm Made from an assemblage of found objects such as bar stools, which are cast in bronze and then with enamel paint..

Issue 14 - March 2016

Femme (Woman), 1970 Bronze (lost wax casting). 310 x 65 x 50 cm

Issue 14 - March 2016

Femme et oiseau (Woman and Bird), 1967 Painted bronze

263 x 82.5 x 47.5 cm

Sa majestĂŠ (Her majesty), 1967 Painted bronze 108 x 35.5 x 34 cm

Made from an assemblage of found objects such as a rake,

Made from an assemblage of found objects such as drain-

cast in bronze and coated with enamel paint.

pipes, which are cast in bronze and then coated with enamel paint. Issue 14 - March 2016

La Dona I L’Ocell 1982 Concrete covered in glazed ceramic tiles in bright primary colours of yellow, red and blue, height 22 metres . Parc Joan Miro was built as a tribute to Joan Miro. The area where the park now sits was until 1979 the location of a municipal slaughterhouse and was originally named Parc de lÉscorxador ( Slaughterhouse park).

The park has two levels: The lower level is landscaped with pine, palm and fragrant eucalyptus trees and colourful flowers, which bloom particularly during the spring and sum-

mer months. The upper level is paved and contains one of Joan Miro’s last sculptures, entitled Dona I L’Ocell. The sculpture was commissioned in 1982 as part of Barcelona’s public art initiative. The sculpture was completed in 1982, just a year before Miro’s death at the age of ninety.

The artwork is about twenty-two metres high and sits on a simple island in the middle of a small pool. As is common in Miro’s work, the concrete sculpture is covered with glazed ceramic tiles. Joan Artigas helped Miro cover his concrete sculpture in brightly coloured broken mosaic pieces – trencadis a technique often used in Gaudi’s work. - Photographs All Rights Reserved Lorraine Fildes © 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

The Beekeeper - Brad Evans for Neville Cunningham

You walk, you walk, You turn a corner and walk some more

The sun might be there Some cloud also welcome But you are always invited Into the house of the beekeeper. You will know it when you arrive Usually an afternoon of daylight

Issue 14 - March 2016

Will warm those neighbourhood bricks You will feel it on your right cheek!

You’ll know you’ve arrived: A poster of Ned Kelly hangs in his window

The front door is always open when he’s in And you can go in once you tap on the screen door. He’ll be reading a book on his thin mattress

Or frying up some fish in his kitchen Always surrounded by books and thoughts And when there’s time

Issue 14 - March 2016

There’s debate and discussion in the Beehive: History, Art, Politics. Other people walk in They’re begging to interview for a folk music rag…

He takes me out to his hives And checks his babies One catches in my hair, Buzzing like crazy ‘It’s the detergent!’ He says - detecting a change

Issue 14 - March 2016

‘We better go back in!’

We sit over tea and honey With squinty eyes, he looks at me nostalgically, ‘The Russians were great beekeepers’

Issue 14 - March 2016

NOT NEWS - NIGEL NERD Exciting news! This latest Arts Zine scoop will have an Australia-wide influence. It is to arrange a portrait of

our next Royal leader. This artistic competition will attract thousands of entries as first prize is dinner with the future Australian monarch.

Australian artists – especially portrait painters – will be pleased to hear that the two major local political par-

ties have displayed true bipartisanship in choosing this new Royal dynasty. For those readers whose command of English is a little shaky, note that “dynasty” means a family succession – it does not necessarily mean “to die nastily” (although this has happened now and again in England).

Both Malcolm (Mal Content) and William (Silly Billy) are worried about the erosion of Australian support for the Windsor Royal family in England. They both see the biggest problem being that the Windsors are not Australian born. Appointment of an Australian born King or Queen would solve this problem. Also, both men are concerned about continued media criticism of their political policies (or lack of them).

Issue 14 - March 2016

They both agree that the best way - the Australian way - is to have an Australian born King who has strong media influence. Hence they are proud to announce that King Rupert the First will be the next King of Australia – after ASIO has arranged the demise of Liz. Both politicians like to plan ahead and give 24 million Australians what they all so desperately need – someone to bow to, to curtsey to, and to wave flags to for ever and ever.

Hence this portrait competition. The prizes are fantastic. First prize is to have dinner with Rupert. Second is to receive a framed photo of Rupert’s family. Third is to receive a signed photo of Malcolm, William and Rupert. A consolation prize is free use of the basement of a disused warehouse as an art studio (only for six

months as the building is to be demolished).

Nigel marvelled at the foresight of Australia’s political leaders. His U.S. passport has come through now (after he proved he was not Mexican) and so he will be signing off now, knowing that Australia is in good hands for evermore. Nigel has already secured a job in the United States with great career prospects. He is to be the public relations officer for the Boston Tea Party (initially on secondment to the National Rifle Association).

GAYE SHIELD

Vacy scene, oil 55 x 38cm Gaye Shield ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

GAYE SHIELD Born in Grafton NSW, Gaye began painting at an early age, attending lessons at Grafton Technical College at age 11. After moving to Sydney, she continued with her painting and attended Meadowbank Technical College whilst being mentored by Allan Fizzel. Now living in Dungog NSW, the local landscape in and around the Dungog Shire has been the main focus of her painting, she has won numerous awards and is a member of the Dungog and Maitland Arts Societies and an Exhibiting Member of the Royal Art Society. Gaye’s paintings are available at the Dungog by Design gallery / shop. Her oil paintings have been successfully shown in galleries nationally, where the request for commissioned works are often sought. Gaye says “Painting is my great love, second to my family especially, my beautiful granddaughters. I endeavour to create a feeling of movement in my work with brush strokes and vibrant colour. I love it; it is life, it lifts the spirit.” Issue 14 - March 2016

Dungog Scene, acrylic 46 x 30cm Gaye Shield ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

When Birds Fly, oil on canvas 60 x 50 cm Gaye Shield ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS

DUNGOG by DESIGN

Artisan Collective 224-226 Dowling St, Dungog. NSW.

Issue 14 - March 2016

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dungog

by Design

is an artisan collective with over twenty creative members

who live and work in the surrounding Dungog district, in the beautiful Hunter Valley,

NSW. Exhibiting and selling their own contemporary designs, the artists are a diverse group of talented people. Including ceramics, textile and fibre art, hand bound books, hanging work in ink, oils, watercolour and print, clothing and homewares, the shop is a treasure trove of original pieces.

The Dungog by Design shop/gallery launch on September 25th 2015 marked the official beginning of a new step forward in Dungog: original, handmade and inspiring.â&#x20AC;?

Address: 224-226 Dowling St, Dungog. NSW. Open days & times: Monday - Friday 10am - 4pm, (closed Tuesdays) Saturday, Sundays, 10am - 3pm.

Enquiries email:dungogbydesign@gmail.com Issue 14 - March 2016

ARDANDI Andrea is a designer and maker of childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clothing. She started sewing when her daughter was two years old and continues to delight in creating gorgeous original childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clothing. See her range in Dungog by Design shop.

http://www.ardandi.etsy.com/ Issue 14 - March 2016

DAWN THOMPSON Dawn Makes Stuff. "I enjoy making books and ecodyeing. Ecodyeing and ecoprinting are serendipitous, never the same result twice. Printing and dyeing using natural materials from my environment is a way to capture impressions of nature on paper and fabric, these are then included in many of my books and cards."

Issue 14 - March 2016

Lorraine Wiseman

has had a varied career in Textile Arts which includes Spinning and Weaving and

teaching these skills at TAFE. Her very colourful machine stitched cushions are on display in the Dungog by

Design Shop. Issue 14 - March 2016

Kat Wittman

is a foundation member of Dungog by Design and our original eco-dyer. Her eco-dyed scarves have been very popular in the shop.

Nigel Stokes - blacksmith â&#x20AC;&#x153;I enjoy many facets of the craft from traditional methods through to the modern art pieces and it all about what your mind can perceive.â&#x20AC;? Issue 14 - March 2016

ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS

139A Beaumont St Hamilton NSW Forthcoming Exhibitions

Ahn Wells in the gallery with Coco - photo taken by Alison Smith.

Issue 14 - March 2016

The Bounds of Photography WED 24 FEB - SAT 12 MAR 2016 OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 27 February, 2-4pm A gallery curated exhibition exploring the bounds of Photography. Exhibiting artists: James Murphy, James Rhodes, Michael Randell, Clare Weeks, Chris Byrnes, Catherine Tempest.

Chris Byrnes fun with Magritte 1 photogram with hand colouring

www.gallery139.com.au Issue 14 - March 2016

ELEGANT BLOOMS Wed, Mar 16, 2016 10:00am 10:00 Sat, Apr 2, 2016 2:00pm 14:00 OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 19 March, 2-4pm The beauty of flowers has been a subject matter for artists since the Renaissance to today. Works featured in this exhibition have been developed from two "Elegant Blooms exhibition workshop" conducted in the gallery. Plus a work by Jill Orr, who is a master at capturing flowers on canvas.. Lydia Miller Elegant Blooms

Nature stirred WED 6 APR - SAT 23 APR 2016 OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 9 April, 2-4pm A gallery curated exhibition exploring the different approaches artists are influenced by the natural environment. Exhibiting artist: John Barnes, Penny Dunstan, Judy Henry, Shelagh Lummis, Sally Reynolds, Gavin Vitullo. .

www.gallery139.com.au Shelagh Lummis Issue 14 - March 2016

100

Beyond COLOUR WED 27 APR - SAT 14 MAY 2016 OFFICIAL OPENING: Saturday 30 April, 2-4pm

The gallery curated exhibition, Beyond COLOUR reveals the different way in which the four exhibiting artists capture colour in their practice. Exhibiting artist: Matthew Tome, Sieglinde Battley, John Heaney, Lynette Bridge. Lynette Bridge blush 2015

www.gallery139.com.au

Issue 14 - March 2016

101

Gallery 139 presents CONSALVO | LANKAS | MAHER at The Depot Gallery, Sydney 24 May - 4 June 2016

2 Danks Street Waterloo, NSW. Issue 14 - March 2016

102

Gallery 139 is committed to developing the professional art practice of it's Gallery Artists outside of Newcastle. This exhibition is scheduled for 24 May - 4 June 2016 at The Depot Gallery in the Danks Street complex is the first of many exhibitions, Gallery 139 plans to present around Australia.

Consalvo, Lankas and Maher

have been asked to exhibit together because while their painting

styles are distinctively different, their art processes and subject matter often overlap which will inevitability form a cohesive and relevant group show together. This exhibition will be curated by Gallery Director, Ahn Wells. An exhibition opening is planned for Saturday 28 May in the afternoon. If you would like to receive an invite to this event in Sydney. Please contact the gallery on info@gallery139.com.au

and ask to be

added to the mailing list for this event. The artists and gallery greatly appreciate support from our local community.

The Depot Gallery

2 Danks Street Waterloo, NSW 2017

Gallery hours: Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm

Issue 14 - March 2016

103

DEBRA LIEL-BROWN

Sea Breeze, Debra Liel-Brown ÂŠ 2016

Exhibition 1 - 28 March 2016 Gloucester Gallery Issue 14 - March 2016

104

DEBRA LIEL-BROWN Exhibition 1 - 28 March 2016

Gloucester Gallery Denison St, Gloucester. NSW Official Opening: Sat 5 March 5pm.

An exhibition of original paintings,

Ceramic vases - Debra Liel - Brown ÂŠ 2015

ceramics and limited edition Giclee prints. Open Hours: Thursday, Friday and Saturday 10.00 to 4.00. Sunday 10.00 to 1.00. Debra will be in the gallery all day Saturdays and Sundays.

Enquiries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Debra Liel-Brown 4987 7947 or gallery director, Rachel Saunders 0425 302 877 Issue 14 - March 2016

105

Giclee Archival Prints (pronounced Gee-clay) Each print edition is a run of 25 prints only, plus the artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s proof. Giclee prints, are the highest quality print for fine art reproduction, and are the preferred choice of museums around the world. These Giclee prints

use acid-free, handmade paper (360gm Photo Rag) and lightfast pigments, ensuring the colours will remain vibrant. They are as close to the original as is possible, not only in colour accuracy but also in texture, picking up individual brush

strokes and lumps of raised paint. This print has been made by scanning the original painting which produces a very high resolution image of superior clarity and detail.

www.debraliel-brown-artist.com/

Orchard (Qantas collection) Debra Liel - Brown ÂŠ 2016 Issue 14 - March 2016

106

Tea Gardens Debra Liel - Brown ÂŠ 2016

www.debraliel-brown-artist.com/ Issue 14 - March 2016

107

‘Flying Free’: come and celebrate International Women’s Day

Over 1100 birds have been created by approximately 530 people and will be flying free at 4pm Tuesday, 8 March 2016 outside Timeless Textiles Gallery. Each bird will be hung with a white ribbon (symbol of the anti-domestic

campaign) and these beautiful handmade fabric birds can be purchased for a donation of $20, with all money raised donated to local women’s refuges in the Newcastle area – Jenny’s Place (Newcastle), Warlga Ngurra (Wallsend) and Carrie’s Place (Maitland). Everyone

welcome

come

and

celebrate

International Women’s Day at Flying Free, which will be opened by Federal Member for Newcastle Sharon Claydon MP and Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes.

Issue 14 - March 2016

108

'Brooching the Subject ' Competition

Call out to all Fibre Artists to be part of: ‘Brooching

the Subject’ competition Fibre artists are invited to enter a “brooch” into ‘Brooching the Subject’ exhibition at Timeless Textiles Gallery in July 2016. 1st, 2nd and 3rd

prizes will be awarded. Entry conditions: Artists can submit a brooch to be worn (approx. 15x15cm) or a wall brooch (approx. 50x50 cm). Limit of two entries/ person.

Brooches need to be made using a fibre material or a fibre art technique For an Entry Form outlining all conditions, please contact Trudy Billingsley's brooch

anne@timelesstextiles.com.au

or 0408483913

which needs to be completed and returned to Anne by 26th February 2016.

Issue 14 - March 2016

109

BACK TO BACK GALLERIES presents:

PULLING THE WOOL a premiere solo exhibition by emergent artist, MADDYSON

HATTON

Exhibition: Friday 4 March - Sunday 20 March Issue 14 - March 2016

110

MADDYSON HATTON Maddyson Hatton is a student at the university of Newcastle studying honours in Fine art. Maddyson’s show at Back to back galleries opening March the 4th showcases her final work of her undergraduate degree. The exhibition explores The Gaze in art making as well as its application to surveillance structures in society. The relationship in these structures between The Gaze and control is what interests Maddyson to research this information and rework it through the art making process. The work is intended to make the viewer contemplate what and why they are looking at it and how they have been made to look and interact with it. Blind drawing is utilised as a process between drawing, ceramics and printmaking in order to create a critical dialogue about surveillance structures through modern history, society and technology. The combination of minimalism and blind drawing create a quirky deconstruction of these politically dominant structures, which vary from watchtowers and prisons to satellites. Maddyson states that ‘Art is designed to be looked at and observed, akin to modern society. It seems fitting that one should question that relationship through the process of making’. Newcastle Studio Potters is a not for profit incorporated association supporting ceramic artists. Its gallery Back to Back Gallery, while presenting exhibitions in various media focuses on traditional and contemporary ceramics.

Back to Back Galleries 57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW 2300 T: 49 293 677 www.newcastlepotters.org.au

Open Friday, Saturday, Sunday 11am-5pm Issue 14 - March 2016

111

“mindscapes” paintings by

Rodney Cones-Browne March 9 to April 2

NANSHE GALLERY 148b Beaumont Street, Hamilton, NSW Opening Hours 9am - 5pm Wed to Frid 9am - 3pm Sat or by appointment Barbara Nanshe 0477 505 332 Issue 14 - March 2016

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“mindscapes” paintings by Rodney Cones-Browne mindscapes The works in this exhibition of recent paintings have been extracted from two concurrent series: dreaming and landscape meditations.

“dreaming - is a series of paintings on canvas revealing images that rise from somewhere deep within my being. Seated with the black canvas on my lap I quieten my thoughts and gaze deeply until images ebb and flow, my mind adrift in a sea of visual memories. With patience and without preconception a key visual component eventually falls forward towards the

front of my imagination and I begin then to render the image on canvas.”

“landscape meditations - are an ongoing series of works where I find structural references to some imaginary land within the layers of a recycled plywood sheet. Without applying too much logic to the process I paint to enhance or reveal familiar components or textures of landscape that I have glimpsed, over days, weeks or months of quietly looking at the raw plywood panel. As light shadows the rough surface, through heavy lidded eyes, I catch glimpses of a familiar reality; the slow reveal continues as I paint, scrape, repaint, buff… over and over detail building with each refining pass.” 

http://nanshestudiogalleryshop.com.au/ Issue 14 - March 2016

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STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE ARTS ZINE Click on cover to view the previous issues. Issue 14 - March 2016

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STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE ARTS ZINE Click on cover to view the previous issues.

www.studiolaprimitive.net

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studio la primitive Eric & Robyn Werkhoven Contemporary artists

Studio visits by appointment Ph: 02 49389 572 E: werkhovenr@bigpond.com

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ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS ART NEWS

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EXHIBITIONS JANUARY - JUNE 2016

4 - 20 March

25 March - 10 April

15 April - 1 May

Pullig the Wool

Beyond Print

Perspectives

Maddyson Hatton (clay, drawing, etching,

An exhibition linked to the Newcastle Writersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Festival 1 -3 April

Jane Smith, Stephanie MaFarlane, Suzanne Reid

cyanotypes &multimedia)

(local artists and various

57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW

Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun 11am - 5pm

(painting & clay)

www.newcastlepotters.org.au Issue 14 - March 2016

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EXHIBITIONS JANUARY - JUNE 2016

6 - 22 May

27 May - 12 June

17 June - 3 July

From the Garden

Ripple Effect and the Human Condition

Blue on White

Amanda Hardy, Bronwyn Grieve,

Helene Leane, Pat Davidson, Julie-Ann Ure, Sandra Burgess, Varelle Hardy & Sue Stewart

Mojgan Habibi, Dawn Perry, Sharon Ridsdale.

Members of Newcastle Studio Potters Inc.

(clay)

(various mediums)

57 Bull Street Cooks Hill NSW

Hours: Fri Sat Sun 11am - 5pm

www.newcastlepotters.org.au Issue 14 - March 2016

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Variant: acrylic on canvas 1500 x 1500mm, Mark Elliot - Ranken ÂŠ 2015

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