ARTS ZINE MAY 2020

studio la primitive

arts zine issue

36

may 2020

Arja Välimäki https://www.arjavalimaki.com Left: Shoaling Mahi-mahi, Synthetic polymers on canvas, H 153 x W 112 cm.

Rainforest Swimming Hole, Acrylics on paper, H 70 cm x W 1m, Debra Liel-BrownŠ 2020.

DEBRA LIEL-BROWN www.debraliel-brown-artist.com/

ANDREW BENNETT .

https://www.andrewbennettart com/

Tethered Utility, Acrylic on canvas, H 76 x W 61 cm.

ART QUILL STUDIO https://artquill.blogspot.com

Vera Zulumovski www.verazulumovski.com www.instagram.com/verazulumovski

Left: Bouquet at Honeysuckle, Linocut, H 66 x W 46.5cm. Vera Zulumovski 2019.

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studio la primitive

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CONTRIBUTORS

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David Middlebrook

Brad Evans

George Gittoes

Eric Werkhoven

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Andrew Bennett

Robyn Werkhoven

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Vera Zulumovski

Art Systems Wickham

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Arja Välimäki

Dungog by Design

Clark Gormley

Barbara Nanshe Studio

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Maggie Hall

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Lorraine Fildes

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John O’Brien

Art Quill Studio Timelesstextiles

T Donna Smile , acrylic on canvas, H 50 x W 40 cm. Andrew Bennett.

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INDEX H

E A

V Y

F R E

E D

O M Heavy Freedom, collaborative drawing, E&R Werkhoven © 2020. Page 132.

Editorial …………

Robyn Werkhoven

10

SLP Antics………... …

E & R Werkhoven

11

Feature Artist ………..

David Middlebrook

12 - 29

Poetry …………………

Eric Werkhoven

30 - 31

Feature Artist …………

George Gittoes

32 - 43

Feature Artist ………...

Andrew Bennett

44 - 57

Poetry ………………….

Brad Evans

58 - 59

Feature Artist …………

Vera Zulumovski

60 - 73

Poetry ……………….

Maggie Hall

74 - 79

Feature Artist ……………

Arja Välimäki

80 - 95

Poetry ……………………

Clark Gormley

96 - 103

Geraldton ……………..

Lorraine Fildes

104 - 129

Poetry ………………….

Brad Evans

130 - 131

Feature ………………….

John O’Brien

132 - 137

Poetry ……………………

Eric Werkhoven

138 - 139

ART NEWS……………….

140 - 155

Front Cover: Red, Blue Field, Oil on canvas, H 1200 x W 3200 cm. ( collection, National Art Museum, China ), David Middlebrook.

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EDITORIAL

Award winning script writer John O’Brien, features an article on the story behind the song and video Heavy Freedom, inspired by the art world of Eric & Robyn Werkhoven.

Greetings to our ARTS ZINE readers.

Since the last issue our world has be thrown into the terrible nightmare of COVID 19 virus, experiencing great tragedy and loss of human lives.

The Visual Arts , Music and Literature, are vital in such times, to keep

creative and stay positive.

The May Arts Zine includes

Lorraine Fildes, our resident travel photographer and writer, features Geraldton - A Western Australian Coastal City.

Maggie Hall presents Ekphrastic writing, responding too:

George Gittoes ‘On Being There’ exhibition, Newcastle Art a wide range of dynamic and interesting

interviews and articles on artists and writers.

Gallery, February 2020.

Don’t miss out reading new poems by Brad Evans and Eric Werkhoven.

Australian contemporary artist David Middlebrook, known for his large spacial landscape paintings and drawings, writes about his life as an artist.

The indomitable artist and film maker George Gittoes brings us a personal story of his journey and inspiration from Modigliani’s painting of Jeanne Hébuterne.

ART NEWS and information on forthcoming art exhibitions.

The ARTS ZINE features articles and interviews with national and international

visual artists, poets and

writers, exploring their

world of art and creative processes.

Painter Andrew Bennett, recognised for his conceptual realist art.

Submissions welcomed, we would love to have your words and

Newcastle based Vera Zulumovski is a master printmaker.

art works in future editions in 2020.

Artist Arja Välimäki writes about her paintings - abstract interpretations and intimate observations of nature.

Deadline for articles 15th June for July issue 37, 2020.

Email: werkhovenr@bigpond.com

This month we feature Newcastle based Clark Gormley, poet, singer/ songwriter and performer.

Regards - your editor Robyn Werkhoven

The publisher will not accept responsibility or any liability for the correctness of information or opinions expressed in the publication. Copyright © 2019 Studio La Primitive.

All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced , in whole or in part, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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S T U D I O

www.studiolaprimitive.net

L A P R I M I T I V E Mad Moment drawing Refuge, Aqua pencil/pen on board, 20 x 20 cm. Robyn Werkhoven Š 2020.

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DAVID MIDDLEBROOK

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David Middlebrook David Middlebrook is known for his large spacial

landscape paintings and drawings, “an obsession with the unobtainable horizon.”

“His painting practice pays homage to, and reflects the influences of both Chinese and European landscape painting history.”

“His work is quiet, with meditative qualities, suggesting more of a response to, rather than a depiction of place.”

Born in 1967 in Gloucester, New South Wales.

David is a full time artist, whose work is held in

numerous public and private collections.

Presently his home and studio is in the Blue

Mountains, NSW, Australia.

Page 12: Dawn, Desert, oil on canvas, H 100 x W 220 cm. David Middlebrook.

Right: After the Rain, ink on cotton, H 102 x W 56 cm. David Middlebrook.

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Field, oil on canvas, H 150 x W 200 cm. ( private collection), David Middlebrook.

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This Land is all Horizons David Middlebrook “This land is all horizons”, said Patrick White. The beautiful, distant, constant and lonely line, hovering across the world, stretching in every direction. I am obsessed by the horizon and its symbolism as the unobtainable, it’s impossible to get there, it constantly moves away from you like the pursuit of the perfect painting. Everyday I get up and start the quest again, it’s why I breath, it’s why I continue, as an artist I am compelled to the horizon. The horizon becomes my perfect painting.

Indigenous people are landscape, as a non-indigenous artist I’m always looking at, never a part of, the land.

Colonial art was always depicting what was owned or could be owned, showing wealth, possession.

Indigenous art made no distinction between people and land, they are one. My art practice is influenced by

both Western artists (Cézanne, Rembrandt, Rothko) and Eastern artists (Guo Xi, Fan Kuan and others from the Chinese Northern Song Dynasty) that combine to create a narrative, a platform allowing me to explore personal philosophies and political questions, indigenous rights to country, ownership, guilt. I’m always looking at, never being landscape, always disconnected. I have never felt a strong connection to any one place, I have a strong connection to people, but the life of an artist is solitary and as such I walk a tightrope”.

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“My art takes me from the desert areas of far western New South Wales and Central Australia to, more

recently, China. I sit under a beach umbrella in a deck chair and I wait, I never work from photographs, only drawings done in the landscape, I’m responding to what I’m witnessing, I need to spend time, sitting looking to learn and to witness the landscape that drives my practice. These small drawings and studies that are done in the landscape are further explored and expanded in the studio, expanded in scale, developed into ink paintings and large scale oil paintings. I have no preference between my ink and oil paintings, I have been able to work in both areas, almost two separate bodies of work. In Europe this is not unusual but here in Australia it is almost unheard of. People should develop their practice however they want, the vision should be their own. Honesty of vision will be recognised, artists should always follow their vision, fashion is short lived. My studio works are done not from the drawings, but from memory of place

that are etched into the subconscious, a mixture of the memories of both the drawings and memory of place.”

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Manly Dam Ink on polyester H 90 x W 90 cm.

David Middlebrook.

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“I try to work six to eight hours per day in the studio. Half of this time I realise would be sitting and looking, moving, changing and polishing the image, scratching out and repainting. By this stage the original

drawings and subsequent sepia works have given way to imaginings of a sense of place rather than a depiction of place. In other words although a particular place is at the base of the work, where I may have

been looking originally at tone, textures and form, at some point the work itself takes over and becomes its own entity, the essence of place. This way of working allows me a way to explore narratives on top of the

surface whilst also being locked into the surface. An example of this would, to those that know my earlier work, be the black square that hovered in front of the landscape, stopping full engagement with the landscape. At the time I never talked about what this symbol represented. The black square was and still is used in my work as a metaphor for indigenous peoples who are part of the landscape and are the rightful custodians of this land. A large work, ‘Not My Land’, has just entered the collection of Manly City Art Gallery, this work depicts an area on the Northern Beaches of Sydney that is a memorial for the First World War. The area is rich with indigenous artefacts and history including contemporary active connections, yet

there is no mention of the people who died fighting for that land. Only a memorial for people who bravely fought on foreign lands. It is hard to find in Australia a memorial to the indigenous people killed on country,

yet every town has a memorial for the First and Second World Wars. Why can’t we do both, why are the frontier wars still not acknowledged?

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Desert Icon, ink on polyester, H140 x W 230 cm. ( private collection Hong Kong ), David Middlebrook.

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“In my recent body of work ‘China and I’, started in China over a six month period, I continue my inter-

est in exploring ‘One Horizon, One World’, work based on equality and inclusion. During this time in

China, organised by my art dealer, Simon Chan from Art Atrium, I experienced not only Chinese

culture, but the kindness and

generosity of the

Chinese people. Studio visitors as well as ceramic

artists, brush

makers, jade carvers, Buddhist

Monks, everyone was welcoming and beyond kind, I am now addicted to Chinese tea. This period in China became an extension of and coincided with when I was asked to put a work ‘Red, Blue, Field’ into

the 7th Beijing International Art

Biennale,

China, and the subsequent acquisition of this work

for the National Art Museum of China.”

(Red, Blue, Field is featured on front cover.)

Post Storm, ink on cotton, H 50 x W 30 cm. David Middlebrook.

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Untitled, China and I, Series, ink and acrylic on cotton, H 150 x W 210 cm. David Middlebrook.

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“The squares in the recent work reference the name chops stamped onto paintings, by both the artist and

the subsequent owners in some Chinese traditional painting. I depict myself as a white square and China by the red. In this current body of work, the ‘China and I’ series, the squares are painted, rather than stamped,

onto the Australian desert landscape. The chops/squares are solid, un-carved, anonymous, void of ownership by any one person. Some almost completely obliterate the landscape, others are arranged in a

unique balance that pays homage to modernism. These conceptual and philosophical narratives float in front of the Australian desert landscape blocking entry into full engagement with the landscape. While this body of work is continuing here in Australia, the black squares have again grown in scale, the works now become more political and more about Australia. There is a lot of discussion about ownership of land in Australia, a lot of it is xenophobic, very little is addressing land rights or the irony of first persons displacement.

My life, my practice is not complicated, but I am driven.

(My next two exhibitions have been cancelled due to COVID-19. One was at Art Central Hong Kong, which would have been my fourth time exhibiting there, and then with Art Atrium Sydney.)

- David Middlebrook © 2020.

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China and I, ink and acrylic on cotton, H 40 x W 50 cm. ( Collection, Ningbo Museum of Art, China), David Middlebrook.

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K Desert, China and I, Series, ink and acrylic on cotton, H 50 x W 50 cm. David Middlebrook.

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Untitled, China and I, Series, ink and acrylic on cotton, H 150 x W 210 cm. David Middlebrook.

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“David Middlebrook holds a PhD degree in Australian Landscape painting researching cross cultural

influences on

contemporary art practices. He has exhibited extensively in over 35 solo exhibitions in

Australia and Asia including South Korea, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

He was a Finalist in numerous art prizes and was a Winner of Tattersall’s Art Prize, Brisbane. He was selected to exhibit in the Beijing International Art Biennale in 2017. He was also selected for the Ningbo

Museum of Art Artist Residency program in Ningbo, China in 2018.

David Middlebrook’s work is in the collection of the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, Ningbo Museum of Art, Ningbo, China, Broken Hill City Art Gallery, Newcastle Region Art Gallery, Maitland City Art Gallery, Muswellbrook City Art Gallery, Moree Plains Gallery, Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery, Tattersalls Club, Brisbane, Forster/Tuncurry Regional

Council, University of Newcastle, School of Fine Art, News

Corporation, Sydney, William Bowmore Collection, Museum of the Senses, Sendai Japan, Trinity Grammar School, Summer Hill, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Newcastle Permanent Building Society, Newcastle

Conservatorium of Music, University of Newcastle, Crisp and Associates, Sydney, Price

Waterhouse

Coopers, Canberra.

David Middlebrook is currently based in Medlow Bath, Blue Mountains.”

- Simon Chan Art Atrium

www.artatrium.com.au Issue 36 - May 2020

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David Middlebrook in his studio 2020. Photograph courtesy of artist.

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Desert Drawing II, ink on cotton, H 20 x W 30 cm. David Middlebrook.

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From Govetts Leap, ink on paper, H 120 x W 540 cm. David Middlebrook.

http://www.davidmiddlebrook.com.au/ All Rights Reserved on article and photographs David Middlebrook Š 2020.

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E

GOING OUT

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We will of course tempt fate in many different ways.

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We need to go out for a hundred and one reasons which are prioritized,

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planned and deemed necessary.

W E

It is going to be a real trial for us all.

And in many ways, we must add this on, to the already pre-existing troubles.

Chances and changes that will occur and draw such sharp and harsh reprimands, because we are so very touchy.

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How that it will all work out, does require more time.

H

Some say months, and each day may seem more crucial.

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Yes okay get it over and done with, make our patience stretch out like an elastic band, a self- retrieving subject.

Guess there is a chance for a spiritual break through.

A tendency to reflect, on how this all interconnects.

- Eric Werkhoven Š 2020.

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CAPTURED WHILE RUNNING

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Has something extraordinary happened, can you possibly relate it to me?

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Sought to distinguish and captured, while running towards it, an illusion, an object that transcends the quest for perfection.

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A dozen wrapped up in a bag or a box, and the wind blows merrily.

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An old and endearing companion, silhouetted among the groaning pensive trees.

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To the allure of a table and chairs, they wait with drinks and boisterous remarks.

Sometimes I think we are not alone.

When all these melodies twinkle and erupt into continuous bursts of light, there is a hand that closes the collar of night around us.

Yes to soothe the final breath.

- Eric Werkhoven Š 2020.

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THE COST – JEANNE AND MODI GEORGE GITTOES When I entered Kogarah High School in 1962, I was 12 years old but had already decided I wanted to be an artist. I wandered down the ‘Hall of Fame’ to see only cricketers, footballers, swimmers and tennis

players but no artists or writers. I thought High School was going to be a lonely drudge.

But there was one saving grace. My art teacher, Mrs Howarth was a bohemian, smelt like incense, and had just returned from Europe. On the first day she offered to sell us post cards of strange new modern art, we had never seen before. I saw the glowing orange nudes of Modigliani and offered to buy all of them.

Growing up in Australia in the 50’s and then the early 60’s there were no books on modern art, nothing about it in the papers and if we got the chance to visit the Art Gallery of New South Wales there was no great art in their collection to see. They had refused John Peter Russell’s offer of his collection of Vincent Van Gogh.

We had heard of Vincent because there was the movie ‘Lust for Life’ with Kirk Douglas .But Vincent was seen as too modern and crazy for Australian taste. William Dobell was the closest model we had of a rebellious artist.

Page 32: Portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne, oil on canvas, H 100 x W 75 cm. George Gittoes 2020.

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The post cards sold me on Modigliani and he came to symbolise everything I ever wanted to be and how I

wanted to live. I failed every subject in 1st year at Kogarah, except art, and I came first in Art. First Prize winners could choose a book and I chose Modigliani with text by Alfred Werner. My favourite painting was

his last – his full body portrait of his pregnant wife Jeanne HÊbuterne.

When witnessing the worst war can do to people, like when drawing a grandmother and her skeletal granddaughters in famine stricken Somalia or a dying teenage girl with her machete chopped face in Rwanda,

I remember how much I owe to Modi with his focus on human expression and posture. Modigliani only ever painted one landscape in his whole life. His interest was people and what it is to be human. I go along with

that!

When I was eighteen I got a job as a chainman on the construction of the Cahill Expressway, to earn the money to fly to the America. Catching a greyhound bus from Los Angeles to New York City and arriving with

just ten dollars and the address of the Salvation Army, Bowery.

I turned nineteen in December of that year. I had no one to celebrate with, so decided my best birthday present would be a visit to the Museum of Modern Art. I went straight to Picasso’s Les Demoiselles

d'Avignon , walked over to the kneeling figure and planted a kiss. The gallery guards were a bit shocked but I explained that we had nothing like this in Australia and it was my birthday. Then I found Starry Night!

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Left: A self portrait from Mrs Howarth's art class 1964 expressing excitement about

the announced Rolling Stones Tour for January

1965.

It

underestimated how

should

never

be

the impact of the

Beatles and Stones Tour opened the

minds of youth in Australia to the world.

In this self portrait my hair was longer

than acceptable to the our Headmaster at Kogarah High.

Poor quality poster paint and biro on

paper. H38 x W28cm. George Gittoes.

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I got a job at IBM and was in their lift where an eccentric looking, aging lady got in who reminded me of

Soutine’s most extraordinary Woman in Red, with a huge black hat. Soutine was Modigliani’s best friend.

I plucked up the nerve to ask if I could do her portrait. I did not know I was talking to an Austrian Baroness,

Marie Von Lebzelten. The Baroness laughed at my audacity, saying “I have been painted by all the greats, Picasso, Derain, Van Dongen… “ and gave me the brush off.

But when I shared the lift, on another day, I persisted and she agreed. (The story of doing the portrait is in

my book Blood Mystic.)

Marie was the patron of the great African American Artist Joe Delaney. Joe felt suspicious about me moving in on his territory with the Baroness and went into protective mode. I suggested I visit his studio and do his

portrait as well. This was extreme presumption on my part. When I arrived at Joe’s 6th Avenue loft it was snowing outside and freezing inside but Joe was shirtless and proudly displayed wounds, from WW2, on

his chest. He put on an LP of Martin Luther King’s great ‘I have a dream’ speech, and suggested I get started while he listened. King had only recently been assassinated in Memphis and Joe was an activist

and visual chronicler of the Civil Rights Movement. Before I turned my canvas around to show Joe, I brushed in ‘I have a dream’, in oil paint. Joe seemed to like it enough to warm to me, a bit, and suggested I meet him in Washington Square Park on the weekend, and bring my charcoal and drawing pad.

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Joe Delaney beside one of his paintings.

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When I arrived at the park, which has since become one of my favourite places in the world, Joe had two

signs up. One sign advertising $5 portraits and one advertising $25. The $5 one was for me and I quickly realised that when ordinary punters sit for a paid portrait they expect a good likeness. There is no quicker

way to learn to draw people’s faces and find the essence of their character.

On another day Joe told me to come to an important gathering at Harlem Temple and to bring my sketch book. It turned out to be a Black Panther rally and Joe was the MC. I was the only white person in the

crowd and tried to make myself inconspicuous but at the end of proceedings Joe announced that there was “an Australian visitor in their midst and he was an artist and had come to draw their babies�. I suddenly

found myself with a line of mothers with Rubenesque black babies to draw while two tall, armed Panthers stood behind me, minutely examining every line for signs of racist interpretation.

It would be wonderful to

find some of those drawings and put them beside all the children and babies I have drawn in Somalia, South Africa, Mozambique, Congo, Rwanda and Southside Chicago.

Modigliani boasted that he never spent more than 15 minutes on a portrait drawing and often did them in 30

seconds. When the sculptor, Jacques Lipchitz commissioned Modigliani, 10 francs, to paint a double portrait of him and his wife, he was startled when Modi finished it in a single sitting, over one afternoon.

Embarrassed, Jacques asked him to go away and do more work, which Modi did, but warned that this would probably mean he would over-work and ruin it.

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Modigliani’s last portrait of Jeanne Hébuterne.

Amedeo Modigliani and Jeanne Hébuterne in his studio.

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While in I was in America in 1969 I read an article which has remained the parable that has helped me to

accept the financial problems that the life of an artist guarantees. The journalist had gone to interview a rich collector who was sitting in front of a Modigliani portrait of the pregnant Jeanne Hébuterne. He took out

his writing pad and asked his first question “It must be wonderful to own a painting as great as that Modigliani”.

The tycoon stood up angry and walking out of the interview yelling “I would give everything I own to have painted it.”

Everything he owned! The poorest of all the artists of bohemian Paris, Modigliani, suddenly became richer than the richest of men.

I have forgotten the name of the rich guy. A friend has suggested it was probably Albert Barnes, the man who made a fortune selling a treatment for gonorrhoea. Barnes was ridiculed, in the day, as being crazy for

collecting “long nose women with their swan necks”. His collection is now housed in a Philadelphia Museum and is literally, worth billions.

With my life slowed by the Corona Virus I found the time to treat myself to something the Tycoon collector,

couldn’t do. I decided to copy the head from the Modigliani painting of his pregnant wife. In this, Jeanne’s nose is the longest of all the Modi noses and the neck the most beautifully curved and her eyes have no

pupils or iris’s, they are pale blue like the sky above the sea on an autumn day. If Modi had lived another week he would have painted more like this – getting closer and closer to representing his sitter’s soul.

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Left: Portrait of Elliot Lovett - ‘Great!’

I first made a film portrait of Elliot in SOUNDTRACK

TO

WAR

at

Uday's

Palace in Baghdad in 2003 , then in 2006 in Brown-sub Miami , in RAMPAGE

and in

2017 when we updated his story. Elliot is now preparing to travel back to Baghdad for our next film. This portrait was painted in Miami in November 2016, during the build up to the Election of Trump. Elliot uses the clown mask to question Trump's idea of

making America Great.

'GREAT !' Oil on Canvas, H91 x W 76cm.

George Gittoes 2016.

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In those last days Modi and Jeanne could not afford heating for the studio and Modi was coughing TB blood

and only able to eat oily sardines from a can. Their young daughter was crying a lot and the cupboards were bare.

When Modi died Jeanne’s brother had to force her to leave his body where it lay and to return to their parental home. Jeanne’s mother had no sympathy for her grieving daughter, hating Modigliani for being a

Jew and the bohemian artist “who had lead her daughter astray”.

Jeanne was sent to a bedroom at the top floor of their apartment building. Her brother was worried and

stayed with her but fell asleep. Jean threw herself out the window.

The brother did not want his mother upset by the sight of her smashed daughter with the dead baby inside

her, on the street. He got a wheelbarrow and put her frail body into it and wheeled her back to Modi’s studio.

As he arrived art dealers were rushing out the door. They had looted everything and stolen all of Modi’s works, including this last portrait of Jeanne. Jeanne and Modi’s surviving daughter does not own a single

work by her father. Within six months of Modigliani’s death his works were selling for over a million Dollars.

This is the cost of being an Artist but the richest man said he would “give all he had”.

Jeanne was a wonderful artist in her own right. I can recommend the book written by their surviving daughter, although it is, understandably, bitter.

- George Gittoes © 2020.

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George Gittoes is a celebrated Australian artist, an internationally acclaimed film producer, director and writer.

Gittoes’ work has consistently expressed his social, political and humanitarian concern and the effects of injustice and conflict.

He has received many prestigious art awards including the Blake Prize for Religious Art and Wynn Prize. His

films have won many International Awards and in 2015 he was bestowed the Sydney Peace Prize.

http://gittoes.com/ All Rights Reserved on article and photographs George Gittoes © 2020.

Left: George Gittoes at the opening of his exhibition ‘On Being There’ Newcastle Art Gallery February 2020. Photograph by Christine Pike.

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ANDREW BENNETT Issue 36 - May 2020

44

ANDREW BENNETT Andrew Bennett is a contemporary Australian Artist,

recognised for his conceptual realist art.

Graduating in 1987 from the College of Fine Arts, in

Sydney. Andrew, a dedicated full-time artist, exhibits regularly in Sydney, Melbourne and the Central Coast.

His paintings are held in numerous

Australian and

International collections in Europe, the US, the Middle East and Canada. “Traveling extensively throughout his career, Andrew has consistently sought to draw together subject matter from a variety of sources, reflective of his fascination with light, texture, perspective and ideas.�

Representation:

Maunsell Wickes at Barry Stern Galleries

Page 44: Vertical Delivery, Acrylic on canvas, H 120 x W 90 cm.

Andrew Bennett.

Right : The Owl Index, Acrylic on canvas, H 90 x W 60 cm. Andrew Bennett

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Above The Clouds, Fishbowl, Acrylic on canvas

H 89 x W 181 cm.

Andrew Bennett.

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ANDREW BENNETT - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

I came a little later to art. Although I used to draw like a lot of kids, I didn’t consider art seriously until a fortuitous event when I was sixteen or so. I went to pick up my younger sister from a play date several doors up the street.

When I got there I walked into a house full of paintings. Graeme Townsend was about to have an exhibition so I was overwhelmed with his work. From that point on I became a bad smell at his studio. He very kindly put up with me and

eventually encouraged me during my HSC works. Got into Art Express with them, but Graeme only encouraged never worked on them.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

I had no desire to be an artist and actually resisted urgings of Graeme Townsend to got to art school. I instead did a year of Applied Physics at UTS, ( then Institute of Technology ). However after breaking my arm I decided that I just had to give it a try.

Describe your work I’m an acrylic painter who has striven to constantly improve my technical ability. I work as a realist but often get confused as a Surrealist. In fact I prefer the term conceptual realist as I use the rendition to carry an idea or a series of ideas. I often

represent a close personal space contrasted with a distant space. For a while I was fascinated with still life and landscape painting. That led to me combining both through the artifice of windows.

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What is the philosophy behind your work?

I work in a more traditional rendition derived from the European tradition but I’m constantly trying to use that knowledge in contemporary ways. Taking that old tool kit and adding new ideas. Mostly through my subject content but occasionally technically too.

I also prefer to make my art from personal experience through travel, or direct experiences. It just feels

more genuine to me. Of course I also believe in good picture building and this is where modern tools, computers and photography can be added to age old tools of drawing and sketching.

Do you have a set method / routine of working?

I tend to work less hours these days in the studio. With self marketing having become important and some private teaching.

However I’m a big believer in putting in the hours. I work five days a week when possible with a minimum of 6 hours painting time. Obviously many more hours before an exhibition.

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

An understanding of drawing is essential in any representational work, yet I only do the barest of sketching myself. Often drawing up directly on the canvas. This is only because I have gained a reasonable ability now and don’t need to practice

much to keep my hand in. However I would encourage anybody who practices as a painter to get competent in drawing early.

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Up Rooted And Adrift, Acrylic on canvas, H 92 x W 61 cm.

Dropping Some Wisdom, Acrylic on canvas, H 121 x W 91 cm.

Andrew Bennett.

Andrew Bennett.

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What inspires your work ?

In all honesty what ever tickles my interest. Be it an idea or an object. That first spark is often best to come from ones precognitive senses. What I mean by that is an inspiration often creeps up on you before you realise it. Then it’s about bringing ones skills to bare. To turn it into a work.

What have been the major influences on your work?

At first it was various artists. My mentor at the beginning, Graeme Townsend, The Australian Impressionists, Wayne Thiebald, Jeffrey Smart to name a few. Some of the renaissance painters. But eventually I let them go and just went back

to basics and painted in the studio which eventually led me to how I paint today. I’m still interested in all sorts of different artists generally but specifically I work on my own now.

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

There are way to many to pick from. However in this moment I would mention David Hockney and his PearBlossom Hwy. Where he uses many many photos to make a much larger image. Usually he bends the space in the picture too.

I think many of Vincent van Gogh’s works, Degas, and lots of Edward hoppers work. That’s to name just a few.

Any particular style or period that appeals?

I am attracted to good realism mostly, especially if it has an angle that makes me think. Yet I also like some impressionism such as Monet and Degas. Other periods are some of the painters of Edward Hopper’s era in eluding the artist himself.

I also do like some of the abstract artists such as Rothco, Frank Stellar, and some German textural abstractionists.

I look for that quality work that brings great observation with good technique, what ever the style or medium.

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Lavender Bay ( With reference to Brett Whitely) , Acrylic on canvas, H 105 x W 122 cm. Andrew Bennett.

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What are the challenges in becoming an exhibiting

artist?

Simply finding what your vision is. That takes time

and effort. Of course that is where conception and execution interface with each other. It’s a constant challenge and inspiration.

Then there’s the other big challenge, when your art leaves the studio or place of creation and enters the world. Making art is its own thing but getting the world to acknowledge your work is an entirely

different challenge. An increasingly hard one. The old road guides don’t seem to apply as well as they used too. So making it a career is becoming a longer odds endeavour but its not an impossible one. Just harder than recent decades.

Right: Calm Before The Swan, Acrylic on canvas, H 101 x W 76 cm.

- Andrew Bennett.

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Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions?

That is so hard to judge as I’m inside the fish bowl

of my career. However I guess the thirteen solo exhibitions I have managed to successfully make and sold well with would be my achievement most noticeable. However continuing to evolve and paint is my greatest achievement.

What are you working on at present?

Right now I continue to explore the subject that has engaged me for my career but with the added idea of playing with gravity. Especially capturing that moment of suspension. Turning gravity off or capturing the moment of falling.

I’m adapting many subject areas from floating buildings to, I hope in the future, people. Time will

tell.

Right: View To North Head, Acrylic on canvas, H 101 x W 76 cm.

- Andrew Bennett.

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A N

D R E

W B E N

N E T

T She’s Leaving Home, Acrylic on canvas, H 91 x W 121 cm. Andrew Bennett.

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A Stormy Decision, Acrylic on canvas, H 76 x W 101 cm. Andrew Bennett.

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What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel and take with them?

I hope I lay enough elements out in the work that an audience can bring their own perceptions to the work. I do enjoy that “Ah ha “ moment that some of my works inspire. I often pose a question in my work or several. If that question or questions elicits a response then I would feel satisfied I successfully executed that work. Yet people often draw conclusions or reactions beyond my personal intentions. That’s a wonderful thing too.

Your future aspirations with your art?

I aspire to keep evolving and taking on bigger ideas and challenges. I also want to stay open enough to find those happy accidents that take you in directions you didn’t expect. As long as I can continue to bring conception and execution to bare well I’ll keep making

Forthcoming exhibitions?

At this time the future is uncertain. I have nothing planned and a few things have cancelled. But where there’s a will there is a way and I will keep working toward that.

- Andrew Bennett © 2020.

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Humpback High Rise, Acrylic on canvas, H 89 x W181 cm. Andrew Bennett.

https://www.andrewbennettart.com/ All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Andrew Bennett © 2020.

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B R A D

a live wire the most interesting part about Arthur was not his short stories

(they were quite boring), nor was it how quickly he could kill off creativity

through his obsession with forming committees out of writing groups it was when he told me about his experience after he mistakenly gripped a live wire -

E V A N S

and through current-punched muscles & voltage-percolated blood, he looked at a corner of the room from where he was being electrocuted and watched this strange, scarlet bladder creature appear suspended from a ceiling corner

how he survived that electrocution I have no idea all he remembered was being flung like a ragdoll - thrown by a brat across the room, right beneath where the strange bladder creature

had appeared.

For years afterwards

I'd been fascinated by Arthur's encounter and, in seeing such things, wondered if the live wire

had begun to slowly cook his brain or if somehow the electric shock had thrust him briefly

into some strange new dimension inhabited by

throbbing, bladder creatures.

- Brad Evans Š 2020.

where it pulsed and throbbed, pulsed and throbbed,

getting larger & larger‌ Issue 36 - May 2020

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B R A D E V A N S

Ruth I can still see you there

and my heart would go out,

in the back row of my class -

but to where?

a young child weeping.

My superiors advised me My superiors advised me

not to hug you,

to just let you weep

to just let you weep

there, all alone yet I can still see your face, Ruth,

and to call your father

the face of a child

if things got worse.

who had just lost And during lesson times,

her mum.

now and then, I would hear a sob from the back row - Brad EvansŠ 2020.

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Vera Zulumovski

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60

Vera Zulumovski Vera Zulumovski is a printmaker who is drawn to the infinitely fluid, fractal lusciousness of

pattern; to Zulumovski pattern is powerful. Her highly embellished linocuts are carved into images which focus on autobiography, often recording events with unrestrained

candour.

Zulumovski has exhibited widely and established a national reputation. She has held 17 solo exhibitions and her work is held in numerous prominent public collections including over a dozen in the National Gallery of Australia, where her linocuts have also been part of major works on paper survey exhibitions.

She has won several commissions, prizes and awards, including the Fremantle Print Award, Walkom Manning Art Prize, Sutherland Shire Biennial Art Prize and the Works on Paper category of the Muswellbrook Art Prize. She has also been awarded a residency at

the Australia Council Studio in Barcelona and recently participated in a month-long residency at Hill End.

Zulumovski has also recently taken part in the paper section of the Sydney Contemporary Art Fair and had her work included in the Bilbao Works on Paper Fair in Spain.

Page 60: Toys, Linocut, H 130 x W 170 cm. Vera Zulumovski 2003.

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V E

R A

Z U

L U M

O V

S K

New Bloom Linocut

H 97 x W 95 cm.

Vera Zulumovski 2020.

I Issue 36 - May 2020

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Vera Zulumovski - INTERVIEW When did your artistic passion begin?

I was born and grew up in Newcastle surrounded by women who expressed their culture by the objects they

created.

As new Australians they brought with them

traditional Macedonian handicraft practices handed down over the . What they created reflected the rituals and customs of everyday life.

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

Yes, though the path of getting to art school wasn’t straightforward. I spent three years doing an Arts degree majoring in Linguistics, most of that time planning how I

was going to get to art school.

Cinderella Complex, Linocut , H 92 x W 69 cm. Vera Zulumovski 2005.

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Describe your work and why do you use linocut as your medium?

Autobiography and imagined worlds are themes which converge in my work. The soft organic characteristics of linoleum enables me to carve intricate motifs extracted and often reinvented from patterns gathered from the world around me. I am also influenced by my Macedonian heritage

particularly the way pattern is lovingly used in traditional handicrafts.

Do you have a set method/routine of working?

Yes, I have a large studio at home. I try to spend

as much time in the studio as possible, however I try to balance that time with growing a garden, yoga, family and friends.

Veiled Woman on a Balance Beam II, Linocut, H 102 x W 77.5 cm.

Vera Zulumovski 1996.

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What was you latest exhibition and what are you working on at present?

My last major exhibition, Intersection, was a pop-up exhibition and studio sale at my home. It was inspired by Spring 1883, an art fair held in Sydney and

Melbourne which stepped away from the idea

of the white cube by using boutique hotel rooms as a space to exhibit. The ‘gallery’ space flowed over 3

rooms and I had total control over what I exhibited and how the work was presented, it was very

rewarding.

Presently I am working on a solo exhibition for Scott

St

Galleries

in

Newcastle,

however,

due

to

Coronavirus it has been postponed. I will finish the work and package it up ready for when the time comes to exhibit … whenever that may be.

- Vera Zulumovski © 2020.

The Apiarist, Linocut, H 106 x W 69 cm.

Vera Zulumovski 1995.

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The Fountain Linocut H 93 x W 84 cm.

Vera Zulumovski 1993.

This work was created during my residency in Barcelona. Drinking from certain fountains in Barcelona holds

special meaning, for example drinking from the Font de Canaletes at the top of the Ramblas means you are sure to one day return to Barcelona.

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She looked up and forever became part of the facade Linocut H 122 x W 73 cm.

Vera Zulumovski 2019.

“She looked up and forever became part of the facade� is about the historic building which is occupied by Newcastle Art

School.

The

building

features

elaborate, highly ornate carvings of

Australian flora and fauna. This linocut is a homage to this building and a way of connecting intimately to the place where I work.

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T H E

R O T U

N D A The Rotunda, Linocut, H 78 x W 115 cm. Vera Zulumovski © 2008.

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T H E

T U G B

O A T The Tugboat, Linocut, H 78 x W 115 cm. Vera Zulumovski © 2008.

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Prints on pages 36,37 and left: These prints are from a suite of 5 linocuts titled “Revealing Unusual Beauty” commissioned to commemorate the Newcastle Region Art Gallery’s 50th anniversary. They are now part of both the Newcastle Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia’s collections.

The intention was to reflect Newcastle’s unique history and

evolution, which rests in a tradition of heavy industry. Today it is a city committed to innovation, new business, the environment and arts. Newcastle is a progressive city constantly being re-shaped rather than made over in the image of other cities.

These prints reveal some of Newcastle’s less observed subjects as well as the more iconic, juxtaposed within the

same image. Some objects and symbols have been embellished or interlinked, and no limit has been placed on the use of Newcastle as a theatre for imagined worlds, filled with unusual beauties, human or otherwise.

Left: Woman With Pasha Bulker, Linouct, H 115 x W 78 cm.

Vera Zulumovski © 2008.

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Lost in Guell Park, Linocut, H 79 x W 122 cm. Vera Zulumovski 1994.

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V E

R A

Z U

L U M

O V

S K

Woman with Sharp Objects Linocuts H 80 x W 55 cm.

Vera Zulumovski © 2012.

I Issue 36 - May 2020

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www.verazulumovski.com www.instagram.com/verazulumovski

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Vera Zulumovski Š 2020.

Left: No Two the Same II, Linocut, H 100 x W 70 cm.

Vera Zulumovski Š 2019.

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M A G G

I E H

A L

The Power of Love

L Issue 36 - May 2020

74

Puppets at play

blood from stone circles hang in ink,

destination unknown I'll protect you from the hooded claw Keep the vampires from your door . . .

Nixon trumping flights of fancy pushing into the ninth state Dreams are like angels

They keep bad at bay, bad at bay Love is the light

Scaring darkness away . . .

Vietnam 1971, governments cultural gift donated chairs, oil on canvas, nightmares compressed charcoal flames burn with desire love, teases tongues of fire Issue 36 - May 2020

75

Purge the soul,

Make love your goal . . .

Iraq Pakistan Somalia Lebron Death and the Devil, 2006

My undying Death-defying love for you Envy will hurt itself

Let yourself be beautiful . . .

Lead on paper writes this story, end of Ramadan. trick mines depart, the legless Bike. Cambodia

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The power of love A force from above

Cleaning my soul . . .

Photographs of the Yellow House, Jalalabad, the long-awaited kiss rickshaws follow man’s pedal as they carry the next passenger The Power of Love A force from above . . .

To Southside, Chicago guns liquor, open-air by the Yemen store

in fields of gold, four quicksilver fates unbound desire Here I am, stuck in the middle with you Words of love and pain Sufis murdered for peace the safe house, by puppet’s door.

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Make love your goal . . .

Forces align, eyes dream, children at war

films dance in time, heroes fight for words of injustice Clowns to the left of me, Jokers to the right . . .

Fate reins, intelligence fronts, the white hat of love city. instruments of colour play beneath clouds of the yellow sun blues haze into purple rain, red tears ripped from tired eyes.

These terrors are real! running annotations bind, a cross-lead tiger snares, rhino fields beat without text, Gods bend light in fears name, awhile, the ceramic night lingers, with intent.

We only exist to survive . . . and here I am . . .

Stuck in the middle with you.

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M

A G G I

E

Ekphrastic writing by M. Hall responding too: George Gittoes ‘On Being There’ exhibition, Newcastle Art Gallery, 2020.

Musical excerpts from: Frankie Goes to Hollywood ‘The Power of Love’ & ‘Stuck in the Middle with you’ Stealers Wheel.

H

A

Photographic imagery are details from George Gittoes paintings.

L L

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Maggie Hall © 2020.

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Arja Välimäki

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80

Arja Välimäki Finnish born, Arja Välimäki is a contemporary Australian artist, based in Australia.

“She draws her inspiration from the microscopic details, the natural world and bird’s eye views of the landscape”.

Practicing since the mid-1990s, Arja completed her BFA and MFA at the University of NSW, Sydney. She has exhibited widely in both Australia and Finland.

She has been a finalist in the prestigious Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW; Sculpture by the Sea, Sydney.

Arja Välimäki’s works are held in public and private collections in Australia, Finland, Hong Kong and UK.

Page 80: Chromis Viridis V, Synthetic Polymer on Canvas, H 112 x W 153 cm, Arja Välimäki.

Right: Shoaling Mahi-mahi III, Synthetic Polymers on Canvas, H 153 x W 112 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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Arja Välimäki - INTERVIEW “I grew up in Finland where I started my art education as a 15 year old teenager. I was the youngest student

accepted to study applied arts about an hour away from my family home so I decided to move to the campus. I migrated to Australia in 1993 and started my fine art practise in 1996. I graduated with BAF and MFA from the University of New South Wale, Sydney.”

Have you always wanted to be an artist?

When I was in year three at primary school our teacher said that ‘now is the time to start to think about what

you want to do when you grow up’. I remember being at my grandma’s place in the country holding my mum’s watercolour portrait of herself and I knew at that moment that I wanted to be an artist and paint.

I asked mum who is this in your painting, because the person in the picture had dark hair, she replied “It’s me”.

My curiosity started there, why would she paint dark hair even though she had blonde hair? As the story continued her father had passed away that year. Mum’s story inspired and

started my artistic passion for

expressionistic and almost compulsive action to create feelings through my art. I feel really grateful towards my primary school teacher noticing my passion and nurturing it over the five years she was teaching me.

Page 82: Red Bird Wrasse II, Synthetic Polymer on Canvas, H 112 x W 153 cm. Arja Välimäki 2019.

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Describe your work?

My underwater series depicts abstracted underwater scenes where schools of fish swim and swirl in harmony. The impressionist or expressionist application of a single colour per brush-stroke, each representing a fish, works to create a varied depth of field and an almost three-dimensional appearance. In vibrant blues and greens with pops of red, yellow or magenta, my paintings

appear alive with movement, texture and colour. This series of works talks about my connection and love towards nature, especially the ocean. The work depicts abstracted underwater scenes

and is full of movement, texture and an array of ocean colours. The titles of the paintings reveal the inspiration behind the paintings, schools of fish swirling around. Recently, I realised that I am

using the same colours in my paintings as the Finnish traditional textile artists weaving the landscape of Finland. I love exploring and experimenting with the mediums I choose to achieve a visual feast in the viewer’s eye.

What is the philosophy behind your work?

I only work when I feel centred, joyful and peaceful. I want my work to have those elements in it. It’s my daily meditative practise. When the viewer is present with my painting, my intention is to have the painting speak to them and achieve a feeling of calm, peace and relaxation.

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Moonlight Romance XVII, Synthetis polymers on canvas in black japan oak frame, H 66 x W 92 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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Do you have a set method / routine of working?

I start my day with a coffee and catch up with some social media. I’m often in my studio at 8am and I normally finish between 3-5pm depending on my deadlines. I only work when I feel centred, joyful and peaceful. I want my work to have those elements in it. It’s my daily meditative practise. When the viewer is present with my painting, my intention is to have the painting speak to them and achieve a feeling of calm,

peace and relaxation.

Why do you choose this material / medium to work with?

I choose to work with acrylics as I can achieve an almost three dimensional surface which dries relatively fast. Also this medium has perhaps less damaging impact to my health.

How important is drawing as an element to your artwork?

I think and draw compositions before I start the act of painting. Drawing is the beginning and a base of every new piece.

Page 86: Strawberry Dottyback II, Synthetic Polymer on Canvas, H 66 x W 92 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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What inspires your work / creations?

My current series investigates intersections between my two beloved countries Finland and Australia. Both countries are on the edges of the world meaning that you don’t travel through them to go to another country. Both have extreme weather patterns hot and cold, sun and snow. Finland has more than 100 000 lakes where as Australia has a lot of dry land. The common thread for me is the water as an element in my work the oceans, lakes and even snow.

What have been the major influences on your work?

Probably one of the main influences on my work is nature and Scandinavian design particularly Finnish. I feel that the Finnish culture, design and nature comes to my work naturally as I mentioned before that after I realised that I am using the very same colours as Finnish textile artists when weaving Finnish nature. I grew up watching and observing my mum weaving, knitting, sewing, making gem stones in to jewellery and stained class artworks.

What are some of your favourite artworks and artists?

I absolutely love John Olsen’s work and his connection to nature via his work.

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Moonlight Romance XXIII, Synthetic polymer on canvas, H 66 x W 92 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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Name your greatest achievement, exhibitions?

I am grateful for so many different opportunities that I have had over the years to name a few is a hard one.

In Australia I was selected for a one year artist in resident at Wollongong Art Gallery and one of my major works was purchased for the gallery’s permanent collection just after six years of migrating here. I have been a finalist at The Wynne Prize and Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi. At Meroogal women’s Art Prize I have received second prize twice, received highly commended and won Author Boyd’s artist in residency.

In Finland I was honoured to receive the title of ‘Young Kalevala artist of the year’ where the Kalevala

Exhibition Centre payed substantial amount of money to cover the shipment of my work for an exhibition, my air flights and a two month artist fee to stay in Finland. There are many more opportunities and moments

that I am proud of in my 24 years of as a practicing artists.

What are you working on at present?

I’m continuing my underwater series mixed with my childhood experiences with snow and it’s beauty. At the moment I have the time to experiment and play with my medium to push and expand my practise to keep

my interest in my work. I feel that it’s imperative to my practise.

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What do you hope viewers of your art works will feel

and take with them?

I would like the viewer to feel my paintings. To feel peace, calm and present. I think it’s important to view the paintings in the flesh as you can immerse yourself to the work. I am grateful that some of my collectors have bought my work via online and I

think it’s going to be more popular way to purchase art in the near future.

Your future aspirations with your art?

I am still wanting to paint my very best piece.

Forthcoming exhibitions?

I am currently working towards my solo show at Art2Muse gallery in 15-28th September 2020.

Magenta Centroberyx, Synthetic polymer on canvas, H 122 x W 84 cm. Arja Valimaki.

- Arja Välimäki (© 2020.

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Moonlight Romance X, Synthetic polymer on canvas, H112 x W153 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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Moonlight Romance XII, Synthetic Polymers on Canvas, H66 x W92 cm. Arja Välimäki.

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Arja Välimäki in her studio. Photograph courtesy of artist.

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Moonlight Romance XXV, Synthetic polymer on canvas, H 66 x W 92 cm. Arja Välimäki.

https://www.arjavalimaki.com All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Arja Välimäki © 2020.

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C

Clark Gormley

L

Clark Gormley is a poet, singer / songwriter

A

recently published Not What you Think, a

and

performer. Flying Islands Press has

R

book of his

K

projects including Nerds & Music. He has

poetry. He has written and

recorded a few dozen songs for musical

performed three of his one-man shows at

G O

fringe festivals around the country.

Herbal Tea Waltz The Herbal Tea Waltz is a song from Clark’s first

R

album, Turn of Phrase.

M

line. There’s a sincerity to it, but it’s dangerously

L

reason, although many people do. I’m proud of it.”

E Y

“The Herbal Tea Waltz is a song that walks a fine close to schmaltz.

Some don’t like it for that

- Gormley.

Left: Clark Gormley performing. Photograph courtesy of Gormley.

https://www.clarkgormley.com/ Issue 36 - May 2020

96

CLARK GORMLEY - NTERVIEW

When did your artistic passion begin?

Not very early. I was not born with it, and not overly encouraged in my youth. I am an engineer by profession, and I found myself writing skits for the university revue, really to counterbalance the dryness of the course. It was a few years later when I moved to Newcastle and discovered Poetry at the Pub that I started writing poems, and then songs and quirky

comedy.

How would you describe your work?

Light and often humourous, but mostly not the laugh-out-loud variety.

What inspires your work?

Often it’s the appeal of an idea which comes and goes in an instant, before I’ve had a chance to think about it.

Occasionally one of those ideas is a good one. I’m interested in how our brains can make such snap judgements, without thinking. Interested enough to read Oliver Sacks books, but not interested enough to study neuroscience.

Looking back, adversity seems to have made me more productive. It could be that during tough times we need to do something creative to get through it.

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Meditation to Stockton Michael meditates on the ferry

among loud teenagers and tired commuters eyes closed, hands on his knees

an island of stillness on the gently rolling harbour.

Unconcerned that he’s missing the spectacle of dolphins and huge coal ships his daily practice renders the four-minute transit to Stockton timeless.

-Clark Gormley.

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Do you have a set routine of working?

Deadlines, mostly self-imposed, are the most effective motivation.

The guilt and embarrassment of not delivering something to a writing group also helps.

Why do you choose to work with words?

We can create beautiful and profound and complex art with words. English has the largest vocabulary, so it can be very nuanced. We all use words constantly, even more so these days with our technology, although we don’t put as much time into their composition.

Humour is often a result of selection of the right word. Bill Bailey is very good at that. He’s able to deliver monologues which sound as if they’re off the cuff, but they’re so well constructed that every word is scripted.

What are your challenges?

I don’t do serious stuff well. It comes out far too earnest. If I’m ever successful in making a serious point, it is via satire.

What are your influences?

Of the modern poets, Simon Armitage and Roger McGough are up there. Of the Australian poets, Melinda Smith, Garth Madsen and John Carey inspire me.

- Clark Gormley © 2020.

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The Herbal Tea Walt Capot 5th fret C

C(b)

Em

Am

When you are full of despondency Em

Am

tissues for your nose.

You know I’ll understand.

Dm

I’ll massage your aura

Em G7

G7 C

Am

walking round crestfallen gloomily Dm

come over my place.

G7

therefore woe is me.”

C

C

I won’t make a pass and

You say “I am woe Dm

Chorus

A7

and channel through your hands.

I’m happy to help you

‘get you out of your wet clothes’

in any way I can

Dm

but I’ll start with a herbal tea.

G7

C

but I’ll make you a herbal tea.

I’ve such a variety.

C

stumbling into the sea.

There’s buttercup, St John’s wort, Fiddle solo

green and chamomile,

And when you’re cold wet and miserable

When next your fate seems in a forlorn state,

sleepy time, parsley sage

frozen to the bone

all your plans are foiled

rosemary and thyme.

feeling all alone,

and your soul is soiled

Rosehip by any other name

and your galoshes are two-thirds full

and the mildew of living accumulates

when your spirit seems far from home.

tastes as fine.

and your kettle is off the boil, So when you’re in danger then don’t be a stranger.

Chorus Dm

I’ll make you a herbal tea.

G7

Come over my place and C

-Clark Gormley.

empty out your shoes.

Dm

G7

There’s a fireplace for your cold feet and Issue 36 - May 2020

100

Meditation to Stockton Michael meditates on the ferry among loud teenagers and tired commuters eyes closed, hands on his knees an island of stillness

on the gently rolling harbour.

Unconcerned that he’s missing the spectacle of dolphins

and huge coal ships his daily practice renders the four-minute transit

to Stockton timeless.

- Clark Gormley.

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Fig Tree out of the forest

H A I K U

the unencumbered fig tree manspreads on the lawn

Black Wash tissue in the wash confetti on everyone

Norfolk Pine

at the funeral

branches outstretched a multi-limbed clergyman

saying the eucharist

Fata Morgana

pixels portraying proof of the impossible that’s what floats my boat

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C L

Hanging in the Hammock

A

When something’s the matter

The swaying brings a stillness

R

she hangs in her hammock

that relieves her illnesses

and sways the sad days away.

even if just for a while.

She gives in to gravity

Her mind is uncluttered

lying there passively

and pacified gradually

G

letting the levity

thinking how

O

carry her

very apt

haunting and

it is that

traumatic

the hammock

M

thoughts to the

hangs in the

L

sky

shape of a

K

R

E Y

smile

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Clark Gormley Š 2020.

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Geraldton – A Western Australian Regional City L O

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A I

N E F I L D E S

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Geraldton – A Western Australian Regional City Lorraine Fildes In December 2019 I spent a day exploring Geraldton, a coastal city in the Midwest region of Western Australia.

I was

surprised and delighted with the variety of things to see and do in Geraldton. It was also pleasing to see that they were paying homage to the indigenous population that had inhabited the west coast of Australia for at least 40,000 years. Today the Aboriginal people of the region generally identify as "Yamatji" or “Wajarri” people.

Geraldton's foreshore is a great example of good waterfront redevelopment with a well paved walking path along the beach front. In recognition of the long indigenous involvement with the area, the main pathway along the historic Champion Bay has been named ‘Maya Jinna’, which means ‘Children’s Foot or Footprints’ in local indigenous languages of Naaguja, Amangu and Mullewa Wadjarri. As well as grassed picnic areas, picnic shelters and children’s playgrounds there were some outstanding sculptures and unusual buildings.

The first public art sculpture I came upon was ‘The Sea meets the Shore’. This sculpture represented the ever-moving and changing shoreline and the meeting of land and sea - inspired by the rich traditional indigenous teachings. The next

sculpture along the pathway was the Ilgarijiri, meaning ‘things belonging to the sky’ (Wajarri language). It was a collaborative project between Yamaji artists and astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). Then came two unusual buildings - a small colourful modern life saving club and - even more whimsical - the 'Rubik cube' public toilets at the northern end of the pathway – quite a shock to the senses!

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At the far end of the pathway was the very modern Geraldton Museum. This museum hosts a permanent exhibit of Yamatji/ Wajarri culture and history of the region. It also has an exhibition of numerous relics recovered from the wreck of the vessel Batavia and other notable local historical shipwrecks such as the Zuytdorp, Zeewijk and Vergulde Draeck. When I visited

the museum, they had a special travelling exhibition of Torres Strait Islander Masks. These masks were made by today’s artists based on the traditional culture of the indigenous population.

I then left the coastal path and headed to an amazing memorial that was built to commemorate the sinking of the HMAS Sydney in 1941. This was the only Australian warship that lost its entire crew during WWII. The memorial is up on a hill and

you can see most of the town of Geraldton and the sea. The most prominent feature of the memorial is the “Dome of Souls” made up of 645 stainless steel birds, one for each crew member who died.

After my trek up to the memorial I headed down into the town. Established in the mid 19th century, the town of Geraldton has a variety of historic buildings - a mixture of Federation, Victorian and Art Deco buildings. I have included photographs

of some of the buildings and the history of the building (if available). The Geraldton Regional Art Gallery, St Francis Xavier Cathedral and Geraldton Courthouse were three of the more substantial local buildings.

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The Sea Meets the Shore Silvio Gallelli – principal artist Charmaine Green – contributing artist This public art sculpture represents the ever-moving and changing shoreline and the meeting of land and sea. From an aerial view the

sculpture forms the shape of a squid and reflects the connections to land and sea of the local Yamaji culture.

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Ilgarijiri

-

‘things belonging to the sky’ (Wajarri language) - is cast bronze and ceramic mosaic.

It is a collaborative project between Yamaji artists and astronomers from the International Centre for Radio astronomy

Research (ICRAR). The artists and scientists shared in a cultural exchange offering different perspectives of the night sky brining together the worlds oldest existing cultural understanding of the sky, its stories and the worlds state-of-the-art astronomical technology. Works by Barbara Merritt and Margaret Whitehurst were chosen from the large artwork collection and have been

re-interpreted to create this piece. The sculpture represent emu eggs cut in half and the mosaic

illustrations indicate the night sky.

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Close up of some of the

Ilgarijiri

-

‘things

belonging to the sky’.

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Further along the Champion Bay pathway (‘Maya Jinna’), I came

upon a small modern brightly painted Surf Life Saving Club and then I sighted the whimsical Rubik cube toilet blocks. The Surf Life Saving Club building directly reflected the Rubik Cube toilet block colours but it certainly didn’t prepare you for the weird sensation of such structures.

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The Geraldton Museum The Geraldton Museum was at the Northern end of the Champion Bay pathway, ‘Maya Jinna’. I think the brightly coloured Rubik cube colours could easily have been applied to this building – may be the Museum was considered a too serious a project to apply such a whimsical idea.

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Torres Strait Masks Exhibition at the Geraldton Museum

This information has been abridged from the exhibition notes.

Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) is a region located between Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea. Gab

Titui,

located on

Waiben (Thursday Island) was established in 2004 as a keeping place to house historical and cultural materials, as well as foster

contemporary artistic practice. The Gab Titui

commissioned

artists to design masks for this exhibition.

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Tradition and Continuity Masks from Zenadh Kes (Torres Strait) are striking objects of deep ritual and historical significance. In the

Western Islands they are called Adhoaz Paoru, meaning Face of the Outside, and in the Eastern Islands, Le-Op, meaning Face of Man. Mask making is celebrated today as an expression of artistic and cultural

revival.

The wearing of a mask, and the rituals and ceremonies associated with it, transformed the identity of the wearer and opened channels of communication between them and the ancestors. The first historical

reference to a mask from Zenadh Kes is found in the records of Spanish explorer Luis Vaez de Torres during his 1606 navigation of the region. Torres, after whom Europeans named the islands and their

surrounding waters, described seeing turtle-shell masks on Iama (Yam Island).

The arrival of the London Missionary Society in 1871 ushered in a period of great change, known throughout Zenadh Kes as the Coming of the Light. The missionaries recognized the transformative power

of masks, ultimately banning them and other cultural practices as part of the Christianisation of the region.

There were a large number of masks exhibited and in this article I have presented a small selection.

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Wezamarimus

By Kapua Gutchen Senior

Erub (Darnley Island) Meriam Mir language group “I have named this mask Wezamarimus, meaning Grey Beard. I have decided to give him grey/white

hair representing all our elderly Torres Strait Island people. As we all know today, our powerful old people hold the wealth of our traditional cultural information. We must approach them to gain this knowledge.�

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Burrburr

By Kapua Gutchen Senior

Erub (Darnley Island) Meriam Mir language group “I have decided to call this mask Burrhurr.

Burrburr is a very ancient Erubam word

meaning ‘grey’, hence Burrburr is greyish or mature in

nature……....Today Erubams

call the grey mudflats Burrburr. This is where we all safely moor our dinghies near to our beaches on Erub.”

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Sesere

By Eddie Nona Badhu (Badu) Kala Lagaw Ya language group “This mask represents one of Badhu Island’s

myths and legends, Sesere. It’s based on how Sesere was one of the hunters and gatherers of Badhu. The other villagers found out that he was eating a lot of Dhangal (dugong). One day when he went out to fish, the other villagers came to

steal some Dhangal from Sesere. Unexpectedly Sesere came home. To avoid being caught the other villagers changed into Umais (dogs).

Later Sesere …….transformed himself into a bird,

today known as Sesere. He then hopped from one person’s head to another until they all clubbed themselves to death with the Gab Gab (club).”

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Naga Mawa

By Yessie Mosby Masig (Yorke Island) Kokagou Ya language group “Naga of Naghir was known to be a great mask maker and made masks in the shape of animals (totems). These were used in ceremonies on Zogo Kwod (sacred ground) and in sacred men’s business. Naga taught men songs and all things associated with Zogo Kwod. Men from all over the Western and Central Islands of the Torres Strait came to him to learn……..This story has more to tell, but due to cultural protocols I could only retell a small part to give you an insight into

the mask of the Kulkalgou nation and the legend behind Naga the mask maker.”

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Keris

By Eddie Nona Badhu (Badu) Kala Lagaw Ya language group “This shell mask represents the three maritime eras of the Badhulgaw people: pearling, Kaiyar (crayfish) and Kabar (trochus shell). It is influenced by multiculturalism and has an

Asian

appearance.

The

Samu

(brown

feathers) represents the connection to Koey Dhawdhay (mainland Australia) and Moegi Dhawdhay (Papua New Guinea)………….

I was grateful to have the experience as a

young man of working on the pearling lugger boats just prior to the industry ending.”

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Kuki Sagulaw Mawa

By Vincent Babia Saibai/Seisia Kala Lagaw Ya language group “Meaning the North-West Wind Head Dress,

which is worn during the ceremony of that season.

Kuki is one of the four winds – the north-west wind,

which

blows

during

the

monsoon

season…………..

From Murrahy to Boigu, they have their own

saying to identify people by which wind they originated from and which way the wind blows from their islands. They could either be: Kuki Gubalgal meaning North-West Wind People; Sager

Gubalgal

meaning

South-East

Wind

People; Zeia Gubalgal meaning South-West Wind People; or Naigai Gubalgal meaning North-East Wind eople.”

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The HMAS Sydney Memorial The HMAS Sydney Memorial was designed by Joan WalshSmith and Charles Smith of Smith Sculptors.

The memorial commemorates the sinking of the HMAS Sydney in 1941. The only Australian warship losing its entire crew in an attack during WWII. The memorial is on a hill and overlooks the town of Geraldton and the sea.

The “Dome of Souls” is made up of 645 stainless steel birds, one for

each crew member who died. Historically, the souls of drowned sailors were believed to be embodied in Sea Gulls. The cupola of birds forms a canopy and the space it encloses feels sacred. Below the central point of the dome is a ship’s propeller which acts as an altar. This provides a formal place for wreath-laying on ceremonial

occasions.

When I moved out of the “Dome of Souls” I saw the figure of a woman looking out to the sea. It is a bronze sculpture representing the eternal, all-encompassing figure of the waiting woman, grieving

for her lost father, husband, brother, son.

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St Francis Xavier Cathedral

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St Francis Xavier Cathedral One unique aspect of Australia’s mid-west region is the architectural

legacy

of

Monsignor

John

Cyril

Hawes.

Monsignor Hawes was a priest, architect and a visionary. He came to Western Australia in 1915 after meeting the Bishop of

Geraldton in Rome. He did outback missionary work for the church as well as doing architectural work. He designed a new cathedral for Geraldton and also during his 24-years in Western Australia, designed another 29 buildings throughout the region.

The construction of the cathedral designed by Monsignor Hawes was commenced in 1916, first opened in 1918, and was completed in 1938. Due to the difficult economic times in which it was built, it was never finished to original

specifications. The economic austerity of the 1930s had forced the usage of lesser materials, and it was not until 2015 – 2017 that the dome and roofing of the cathedral and the installation of the clock in the clock tower were finally completed to Hawes’ initial specifications. As you can see

from the photos the cathedral is a magnificent architectural structure for a small regional town of the early 1900’s.

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Geraldton - Art Gallery

Geraldton - Art Gallery This beautifully restored Victorian building was originally the Geraldton Town Hall and served as such from 1907 to 1981. In 1984 it opened as

the Geraldton Regional Art Gallery.

When I visited the Art Gallery in

2019 it had a travelling exhibition organised by the National Portrait Gallery and National film and Sound Archive of Australia. The exhibition was called Starstruck: Australian

Movie Portraits. Starstruck explored the striking portraits emerging from 100 years of Australian movies.

It featured photos of famous Australian actors and scenes from iconic

such as Picnic at Hanging Rock, My Brilliant Career and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

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Geraldton’s First Railway Station This was the first Geraldton railway station building. It was constructed in 1878. When the station was operational, trains would travel to it down the main street through the centre of town. There was a second station at the eastern end of the CBD so when the people no longer wanted a train travelling down their main shopping area the first station was closed. After the station was closed the building was used as the Mechanics Institute, then in 1973 it became the Maritime Museum and now in 2019 it is The Geraldton Visitors Centre.

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Geraldton Club Building

Geraldton - Freemasons Hotel

This Federation Free style building was designed by architects

The first Freemason's Hotel was erected on this site in 1880.

The current wonderful, rather whimsical Victorian architectural structure was built around 1896.

Oldham & Cox for the Geraldton Club. Construction was completed in 1913. It has been restored so as to keep it's unique character and charm.

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Yamatji Marlpa Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation now occupy this building.

It was originally constructed in 1939

for the Commonwealth Bank.

The building is a rare example of a pre World War II provincial city bank built in Art Deco style. It is one of only a few Art Deco style buildings in Geraldton.

This two storey rendered masonry building has a symmetrical front facade featuring a tall parapet wall with curved decoration to each side. The vertical decorative banding emphasises the height of the building. The

central entry door is recessed and has a box awning above. Windows are timber framed.

The Art Deco decorative motifs include fluting, grooving and a stepped plinth.

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Geraldton - Potter's House This was originally a Radio Theatre and Motor Garage and was known as Potter's House. It now houses The Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant.

This two-storey rendered brick and fibre cement roofed building was constructed in 1937. The place is an excellent example of the work of prominent architect Samuel Rosenthal, being one of the few remaining of his theatre designs and a rare example of an Art Deco styled picture theatre outside of metropolitan area Perth.

It was designed in the Inter-War Art Deco style and originally comprised a picture theatre, service station, motor showroom, two shops and four flats. The architecture combines strong horizontal and vertical streamlining with stylised decorative features.

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All Rights Reserved on article and photographs Š Lorraine Fildes 2020.

Below: Modernised Art Deco style theatre. Some architect in Geraldton has a predilection for the Rubik cube

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B R A D

diesel in the morning...

check the curtains

trying to sleep in on my day off

And then I catch movement -

and whatever was making that sound - sounded big.

of a bumblebee

It starts revving…

It would stop and go nice & quiet and I would begin to doze off and then it would start again…

E V A N S

follow the vertical folds

those blades a feel for the tide and all those currents

a deep, whining drone.

In the insect world it had grunt - a diesel engine.

Was it a hornet?

A bee planning a hive?

spot a grumbling mother

caught in the boxed sash -

a velvety lump of pure grunt.

I thought

I tear off some paper towel

and get up…

Which way are you going to go?

Revving…

Revving…

Are you going to slam into my face?

dangle it down between

2 panes of glass

No,

and wait for it…

it leaves me in the dust of its departure…

After 3 attempts it hooks on

I give my going guest a farewell wave

and I lift it

At 5:31am of a glass prison

a bumblebee now a shrinking black dot

and wait on insect time

soaring over rooftops

(I don’t have to wait very long)…

I keep the towel steady

as I throw the sheet aside

Revving…

Are you going to fly into the house?

dangle it out Stopping and starting’s not good for the engine

I forgot to ask your name?

letting it set those co-ordinates and watch the wings spread out

while a brad crawls back into the sack.

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B R A D

When the old lady arrives...

When the old lady arrives she goes to the teenage section of the library.

Only when it's quiet will she sit down at a table & bring out her huge sheets of paper, her crayons

E V A N S

& then she'll begin...

I watch her from a distance filling those pages with greens, reds & blues

until I can see jungles, drawn deserts, rivers rendered

the old lady's back is curved

& when she leans forward she scrutinises her work closely for imperfections.

I watch her from a distance

& I smile at this old lady forgetting who she is & what she is & what others may see of her

sitting in a twilight space to set free a child, a child that I can see for just

a short while.

and oceans that will appear in children's books.

- Brad Evans Š 2020.

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https://youtu.be/eGiLBkAmTdI Issue 36 - May 2020

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Darkness & Collaboration & Ecstasy – music meets art in “Heavy Freedom”

By John O’Brien of The De Factos Heavy Freedom is inspired by the work of artists Robyn and Eric Werkhoven. But it didn’t start out that way.

I wrote the first version of the song in May 1994, years before I even met the Werkhovens. A decade later

my partner Donna “hired” me (I was cheap) to open an exhibition of five artists at her gallery in East Gresford. I decided to do it by singing a different song fragment for each artist. Robyn Werkhoven’s work,

with its universal characters, bold colours, frozen moments of surreal narrative, desire, threat and ecstasy, fitted the first verse of Heavy Freedom to a tee.

Fast forward another dozen years, to 2019, such a long time ago, a bushfire-rain-covid19 lifetime ago, to a new exhibition of Robyn, Eric and daughter Monique at Art Systems in Newcastle. We were asked to open

this one so we evolved Heavy Freedom in a new direction. We wrote new words – some of the lines are straight out of Eric’s poetry – and twisted in some new ideas. The song’s bridge came to life and we worked together to build an extended outro.

And the meaning of the song finally landed.

In 1994 Heavy Freedom was a muddled idea about a woman trapped in an abusive marriage. The 2020 version has evolved and transformed into an exploration of the nature of creativity. To create, to make, to

compose, to “be” an “artist”, is not so much about the compromises you make as the compromises you refuse. It is a heavy freedom that is worth it all the same.

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But there’s a miracle in store for some who take that risky journey. The miracle is when two artists find

themselves able to collaborate and agree on how that might work. That’s as true for Robyn and Eric as it is for me and Donna. To find someone else on the same side of your personal mission is such a blessing, as it

reduces the amount of Sisyphean ordeal in the process. Eric and Robyn are literally on the same page when they co-create their drawings.

Donna and I need each other musically – she has the gutsy precious gift of her voice, I have chaotic melodic and lyrical ideas and production skills – she knows when something isn’t working melodically, or

when the words are not speaking true – she is also a gifted songwriter – we both encourage and push one another. It’s hard to express, but it’s a multiple effect.

It seemed obvious to build the music video out of Robyn and Eric’s work and process. The first shot is one of Eric’s sculptures adding brilliance to the most Rousseau section of our garden. (Eric and Robyn are now friends and we have several of their wonderful works.) Best of all, they have one particularly cool practice as Studio La Primitive, collaborating on two drawings simultaneously. Throughout the video you can watch them drawing and swapping a pair of new sketches inspired by the opening verse of the song, the verse that survives from the time before we even met. It’s inspiration come full circle.

I wasn’t sure what putting all these artworks together in a video would do. Some are early. Some recent.

Two are being made as you watch. Some exist only in digital form, having been sold to unknown strangers over the years. What would the cumulative effect be?

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Eric & Robyn Werkhoven - Studio La Primitive. Photos courtesy of John O’Brien.

www.studiolaprimitive.net Issue 36 - May 2020

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You can judge for yourself. I believe the video manages to impress with the vastness of their catalogue, the

throb of life pulsing through it, the darkness and the ecstasy. It’s like a huge speedy retrospective of their work. I think different viewers will find different gems gleaming at them, supported by horns, piano, beats

and soulful vocalisations.

For me it’s been a shocking good match, letting artists’ work be the inspiration for a song. With so many

musos loving the visual arts as creatives, owners and practitioners, I’m surprised the synergy isn’t explored more often.

Join us for the premiere of “Heavy Freedom” by The De Factos. The world premiere will happen on

YouTube on Sunday 3 May at 5.30pm Australian Eastern Standard Time. You can join the “Heavy Freedom” watch page at this link

https://youtu.be/eGiLBkAmTdI, and give us your

impressions in the comments before, during and after the show.

After that you can watch it forever on Youtube, or listen to the song on iTunes, Apple Music, Google Play.

Spotify or wherever. 

John O’Brien © 2020.

Page 137: The De Factos, Grass Maraccas. Photo courtesy of John O’Brien.

All Rights Reserved on article and photographs © John O’Brien 2020.

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REMONSTRATION I could go for this walk, and bring along pen and paper.

To give myself that option, see for myself how others are coping or just carry on as usual, which enforces the task setting.

But neither does it break with the monotony that draws ever tightening screws around

the perimeter of our life.

Are you flightless, do you largely remain grounded?

Lead us to that take off pad, with in the ritualistic daily re-occurrences intractably

winding us back in.

You are right to feel, your mobility of owning a car liberates you and sets you free.

Alas (helaas) it to is marked by untold sacrifices, creatures that feed the flame that

drives the turbines that keep the lights burning.

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Some say our destiny is in solar energy, it is a miracle we have to accept and embrace,

switch over completely.

Why haven’t we come to that conclusion, why have we remained blind?

Because we feel swamped with everything else, of a contradictory nature, even mean and spiteful.

It just flows out the poison of regret.

I realise it has been with us for a long time, that did not stop us from experiencing great things, love and art and music.

Architecture with its sublime superiority complexes, stand squarely on the cross roads.

- ERIC WERKHOVEN Š 2020.

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ART NEWS Issue 36 - May 2020

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ART NEWS Issue 36 - May 2020

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https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Issue 36 - May 2020

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Barbara Nanshe Studio Online Shop Handmade. Ethical. Bespoke. Unusual. Original. Individual

https://nanshejewellerystudio.com/ Issue 36 - May 2020

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Gallery Gift Shop at Home An online store featuring a variety of wearable artworks - bracelets, scarves and earrings as well as homewares.

https://timelesstextiles.com.au/product-category/gallery-gift-shop/

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DUNGOG

BY DESIGN GALLERY 224 Dowling St Dungog NSW.

We will keep you posted on re-opening date. https://www.facebook.com/ DungogbyDesign Issue 36 - May 2020

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ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM J

O H N B A R N E

S

40 ANNIE ST. WICKHAM, NEWCASTLE NSW.

Phone: 0431 853 600

www.art-systems-wickham.com/

Director: Colin Lawson Issue 36 - May 2020

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ART SYSTEMS WICKHAM P

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Wollombi Study, oil on board, H 120 x W 90 cm. Peter Gardiner.

www.art-systems-wickham.com/ Issue 36 - May 2020

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STUDIO LA PRIMITIVE ARTS ZINE Arts Zine was established in 2013.

Featuring artist’s interviews, exhibitions, art news, poetry and essays.

In 2017 it was selected by the NSW State Library to be preserved as a digital publication of lasting cultural value for long-term access by the Australian community.

Click on cover to view the issue.

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Click on cover to view the issue.

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Click on cover to view the issue.

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Click on cover to view the issue.

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POETRY & SCULPTURE

The publication includes a collection of poems written over recent years, penetrating and profound observations on life. And a selection of

Eric’s dynamic and prolific sculptures.

Enquiries contact: E: werkhovenr@bigpond.com

Page 134: Left - Front cover, The Fall, Autoclaved aerated cement / cement / lacquer, H32 x W46 x B38cm. Eric Werkhoven 2013.

Page 134: Right - Goddess, Autoclaved aerated cement / adhesive cement / lacquer, H82 x W25 x B20cm. Eric Werkhoven 2010.

Right: Eric Werkhoven, Photograph by Robyn Werkhoven.

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Rhino Images - Art and the Rhinoceros Lorraine Fildes and Robert Fildes.

Art and the Rhinoceros - There are over three hundred Rhino images in this book.

Whether in the ancient past or in the present the rhinos are always represented as huge, powerful and solitary animals. The book includes paintings, drawings, woodcuts, etchings, rock carvings and sculptures of the rhino all depicting the power of the animal.

These images of the rhino range from early civilisations such as in China, Roman Empire, Indus civilisation in Pakistan/ India area and from Southern Africa down to current day images of paintings and sculptures produced by modern day

artists.

The text indicates where you may find these wonderful images as well as the websites of the artists concerned, the caves where the rhino images have been found and the places where posters use the rhino image.

There are very few of these magnificent wild animals left in the world, so unless they are protected and managed, artistic images will soon be the only viewing option.

Rhino Images – Art and the Rhinoceros, First Edition, 2017, is available for download at The Rhino Resource Centre web site.

Direct Link :

http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/index.php?s=1&act=refs&CODE=ref_detail&id=1518479271

Page 154 : White rhino crash at Whipsnade Zoo, England. Image: Robert Fildes Š 2019.

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