Winter in Melbourne - Art for the Hanging

If you spend a lot of time inside during winter staring at walls, not only do you go stir crazy, but eventually it comes to you that you should buy some art to hang.

And in winter, that means to me, landscapes.

I love the look of a landscape hanging in a pristine room, like this. In fact I just love everything about this room, but mostly its tranquillity and the fact that the painting is allowed to speak, without needing to shout. 

(via Remodelista)

This is Vincent D'Onofrio's 5 storey townhouse, decorated by Jan Eleni.  If you can't have a gilded mirror above your fireplace, I think a moody landscape does just as well, if not better. 

And these are some of my current favourite (living) landscape painters.  This is by Darren Gannon, represented by Libby Edwards.   The thing about landscape painting is that you cannot skate by on poor technique or low quality materials.  It really shows up your skills.  

Early Start  -  2010  (oil on canvas)

This is by Geoff Dyer, a very well regarded Tasmanian painter.    Aim high, and you too can have a Dyer.   He is not a cheap artist.   But look at the depth, and indeed, emotion of that stormy sea. 

Climate 1 (2009)

These little ones (not a triptych, maybe a nono-tych) are by Jennifer Shears and you can find them here on Etsy.   Aren't they exquisite?   All the different cloud moods are represented.  

This is by Alexander Mackenzie, an Australian artist about whom I have previously written.  

The Third Island (2009) 0il on linen

Here is another Jennifer Shears.

And these are by Swedish artist Peter Freis. I am indebted to Monika at Splendid Willow for alerting me to this wonderful artist. Born in 1947 (just like Geoff Dyer), he is represented by this gallery in Stockholm.   

I hope you all have a serene Tuesday.

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Snail coming down

Snail coming Down 2008

Do you ever feel like this? I do. Although naturally I don't leave a silver trail behind me. And I don't have to feel where I am going with my antennae.

Big Bull Wauchope 2009

One of my favourite Australian artists, Noel McKenna, is having an exhibition at Niagara Galleries in Richmond called News of the Summer Reaches Shore, which is apt for September in Melbourne.

Here are two of the paintings from the exhibition:

House Southland 2009

Religious Landscape 2009

He often paints houses sitting by themselves in a sparse landscape, standing proud against the environment but still somehow dwarfed by it.

The last one reminds me of a Minnesotan landscape from a Garrison Keilor book. Bleak but homely. In 1989 I went through a pretty major Garrison Keilor stage. I read all of his books, in some cases more than once. Isn't it funny how you can have those little book obsessions and then just walk away from them?

(Images: Niagara Gallery)

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Owls, parrots and sandwiches - my favourite artworks this month

August is a good month for staying indoors and gazing for hours on end at paintings. There have been a lot of interesting exhibitions and shows in Melbourne this month ranging from the Salvador Dali exhibition at the NGV to a selection of 1940's Albert Tucker photographs at Heide. Here are some works by two wonderful artists with exhibitions on at the moment.

Rachael Lester has an exhibition 'Winter Smoke' on at Australian Galleries until 16 August 2009. Here are examples of her 2008 oil on board earlier work held by this gallery (some have sadly already sold).













I love the softness of her work, and the expression she gets into such relatively inanimate and expressionless objects as an owl (look at his beautiful bottomless eyes) a pigeon and a sandwich. Here is a little hint of her work in the current exhibition.




Kerry Lester also has an exhibition at Australian Galleries, called 'Out and About'. Here are two paintings held by the gallery.





This is a very Australian image. Why do parrots always have to gather so noisily together? Why can't they take a tree each? They must be very sociable. And here is another one, of black cockatoos.

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Jan Senbergs - Map Art

Melbourne Capriccio 4 (2009)

The Latvian born Melbourne based artist Jan Senbergs is having an exhibition at Niagara Gallery in Richmond from 28 July 2009. His original apprenticeship was in silk screen.

Here are three works from the exhibition. They are acrylic on linen and paper.

Now this is a very specific style, which will not be to everyone's taste but I found myself quite enthralled and challenged by it. A number of the works in the exhibition (two are shown here) are effectively out of perspective aeriel views of Melbourne.

These works are to me very reminiscent of those Medieval maps where all the relevant landmarks (eg far away mountains) had to be depicted even if logic and perspective meant that they were actually too far away to include. To those people, and to the later explorers in the 1600s the world was alternately very very small or horrifyingly large. So every little object had to be crammed into the map.

Or is it a representation of the city on the edge of the earth, just tipping over? I love it.

Melbourne Capriccio 1 (2009)

Altered Eureka Tower

And I must say thank you to Niagara who have faithfully sent us their beautifully printed exhibition cards for 10 years now, without us buying a single painting. I know that many others would have deleted us from their mailing list by now!

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Evocative Alexander McKenzie Landscapes

Alexander McKenzie is an Australian landscape artist who was born in Sydney in 1971. His work is beautiful and evocative, in a world where excellent modern landscapes are in very short supply. And up close and in real life, I can assure you that they are even better.

According to Axia Modern Art, who has a current exhibition of his work, his paintings are:

as much evocations of mood, weather and the subconscious as they are depictions of actual place. His unique and powerfully innovative visions of lakesides, gardens and sunsets are hauntingly powerful scenes that continue their subtle break away from the more literal representation of landscape, towards a presentation of the imagined. McKenzie is concerned with the emotional power of beauty and uses landscape as his vehicle for expression.

To me, his work is slightly surreal, and conveys what it might feel like to be transported to a 1790s countryside but retain one's 2009 sensibility - slightly dreamlike but with a feeling that there is something out there in that beautiful landscape which might be a bit sinister.

This painting is called Sun Striking Sandbank.

You can see his exhibition online here or at Axia in High Street, Armadale.

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Metro 5 Gallery - Library Art - Victoria Reichelt

Metro 5 Gallery in High Street runs an annual young artists competition and exhibition with a not inconsiderable prize of $40,000.

Here is the amazing 'Self Portrait' by Victoria Reichelt which won the People's Choice.

The painting needs to be seen in real life (like most art, as the detail is incredible). Bear in mind, this is a painting (oil) not a photograph.

She has painted some of my favourite books including Richard Dawkins 'God Delusion' and Donna Tartt's 'Secret History'.

I fully subscribe to the the idea that you are what you read.

If one could create a bookshelf for one's life, what would it contain? I am working on my list. It should definitely have categories - childhood, pretentious French, saccharine, life changing, scientific, detective, airport, history and art \ design. This will be the subject of a later post, because I think it needs some consideration.

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