Divergent Visions catalogue

Front Cover: Central Park New York USA, watercolour on paper, 21 x 28 cm; Fishing Wharf Maine USA, watercolour on paper, 34 x 49 cm; Study of Mangrove Patterns Qld, watercolour on paper, 22 x 30 cm; Fishing Wharf Rockland USA, gouache on paper, 45 x 55 cm. Back Cover: Into the Courtyard Alayrac, France,70 x 60 cm, watercolour on paper

UmbrellaStudio

#DivergentVisions

divergent visions

by ANNEKE SILVER

Umbrella Studio contemporary arts | 482 Flinders Street, Townsville | (07) 4772 7109 www.umbrella.org.au | admin@umbrella.org.au | Open: Mon-Fri 9-5pm & Sun 9-1pm Umbrella Studio acknowledges the financial support of: The Queensland Government, through Arts Queensland, the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territory Governments.

7 July - 18 August 2013 Umbrella Studio contemporary arts

Kimberley, watercolour on paper, 27 x 31

Sketchbook pages: 1/ Gozo , Malta 2/ Market in France, pen on paper

Divergent Visions Widely acclaimed and highly respected both as painter and art educator, Anneke Silver now gives us a look behind the scenes, by showing her travel diaries and sketch pages of approximately the last fifteen years.

These are glimpses of travels and residencies both within Australia and overseas—from as far as France, the Caribbean, Holland and USA, to New Zealand, India and several islands in the Pacific.

Many of these works are the raw material, warts and all from which the artist draws inspiration at a later stage.

They are also a means of keeping up technical and observational skills when travelling, but above all they reflect the sheer delight of being somewhere “seeing what you see and being excited by it”. The artist comments that “it is great to travel with a sketchbook; it becomes your companion and you feel you can simply sit anywhere to do a sketch and not feel awkward. People will also come up and talk to you, and discover what you see in a place— which is fun when you travel”.

Sometimes there are several hours to spend on a page, other times it is only

a few minutes and results may be finished from memory or with the help of hastily taken photos— or left as they were!

Clearly some sketches or studies are larger than others and were completed in the field during residencies in various places in larger format sketchbooks, and in that sense are complete.

The very nature of the different encounters also gives rise to different responses and approaches to representation. The artist notes how divergent these interpretations are, hence the title of the exhibition divergent visions. Techniques vary from pen, pencil, watercolour and charcoal to pastels, oil and acrylic.

Subject matter ranges from landscape (some from the air!), seascape to architecture and sketches of people at markets, café’s and airports.

One series nights2remember depicts exclusively the bedrooms the artist slept in, when she realised that even if she recalled the events of the day she could not remember the bedrooms she slept in. These took many and varied forms: from yachts’

cabins, huts in indigenous villages to luxurious rooms in island resorts. And not to forget the studios of artist friends… rich food for the eye. Another set depicts daily experiences from Flying Arts tours cast in a round format.

It is evident that landscape and architecture are the favourite subjects for further development… but it has been noted that no matter what the subject matter, location or technique her work is often about light itself.

Jointly these sketches have been the source and inspiration for many solo exhibitions. Some will recognise passages of these works notably from the linked landscapes and un-framing exhibitions which travelled Regional Galleries in Qld and NSW. Others found their way into exhibitions overseas in the location they were conceived such as Holland, Fiji and the USA. Only a selection of these is still available— shown here to illustrate the passage from sketch book page to finished work.

Facsimiles and posters of many of the notebooks have been published and are available in limited edition as part of this exhibition.

On the other side of the canal, Holland, watercolour on paper 28 x 22cm

Street in Gozo, Malta, watercolour on paper, 28 x 22cm