AUGUST 21 – SEPTEMBER 21   

FEATURED ARTISTS

COLETTE JONQUIERES. CHRIS STEVENSON. WILL HAZZARD. MARTIN GARIBAY. GAV BARBEY. BARRY SMITH and ELLEN JEWETT

22nd August – Opening Event @ 2pm

Please note that due to the current COVID-19 crisis, NSW Government restrictions will apply

ARTISTS

COLETTE JONQUIERES – Painter

Over the last nine months I’ve been working on a series of portrait paintings using goats as my subjects, but with a twist. The paintings are based on people I know.

CHRIS STEVENSON – Painter

For many years I have been intimately involved with farming on family cattle properties in NSW. Just like humans, cows can be social or bloody-minded, sensitive or stubborn, suspicious or nosy. The shape of cows, both individually and as a herd, invite me to play with their forms within the rectangle of canvas or paper. I am also attracted to the texture and rhythm of their hide which seems to mimic the landscape surrounding them. To quote from the first few lines of a poem I wrote:

“Up close cows are landscapes…….. Those shorthairs on the belly……..  are the grasses of paddocks.”

WILL HAZZARD – Painter

My work aims for a connection with animals, the environment, and the Wiradjuri land I live on. To me, that is where beauty emanates from.

My work is often inspired by personal encounters with nature (lizards, kangaroos, magpies, echidnas, cockatoos etc) on my property at Meadow Flat and my paintings represent a spiritual connection with the land and the beauty of nature.

Like Monet’s haystacks and water lilies, I usually do a series of paintings on each subject, tweaking the work, making subtle changes to capture different moments in the life cycle of the subject.

For example, My lizard paintings were inspired by an encounter in my front garden, when I returned home one day to see a blue tongue lizard give birth to a handful of babies! These works represent life cycles, birth and renewal.

My cockatoo paintings came about after rescuing a baby Sulphur Crested Cockatoo that we named Billy. He had been severely injured by a hawk and could not fly. My family nursed him back to health until he was finally able to re-join his crackle. I have used Billy’s struggles to represent the environment and he is a symbol of hope for a beautiful future.

MARTIN GARIBAY – Painter

I paint because I have no other choice if I want my life to have purpose. This is a recent discovery for me, a very happy one.

As a painter I like to create paintings with a soul, so connections between a painting and the observer can be made, and emotions can be conveyed. I enjoy the goodness in the world and I don’t enjoy the pain in it bit I know that beauty can be found even amoungst ugly and painful things, it’s about perspective, and that’s why I chose stray dogs as my subject for this exhibition, to me the convey some of their pain that make us sensible towards them, and also their infinite beauty.

GAV BARBEY – Painter

Gav Barbey is a Melbourne born Multimedia Artist.

Eccentric with his art, Gav began his journey as a young dyslexic male in the 70’s. “I always will gravitate to the theatre – I think it’s where I do my best work. It’s all encompassing and a multitude of other disciples can reside there.”

Gav has had a very colourful life, spending time overseas in countries such as America, South America and Africa. With his work he is able to explore his creative expressions in the places novices may not find commercially appealing. He clearly states a loathing for the business end of the Art world; “

BARRY SMITH – Painter

Born in North Yourshire, England in 1948 and the son of a huntsman, his love of horses and hounds have played a big part in his life.

A self taught artists, this love of animals and the country way of life shows through in his paintings.

Barry was granted full membership of the Society of Equestrian Artists (S.E.A) in the UK in 1997.

He has exhibited extensively, including Christies, and won several prestigious prizes in the UK.

Since coming to Australia in 2007 his love of this country is evident in his paintings.

To exhibit in Beauty of the Beast gives Barry an opportunity to show his predominantly equestrian art work in a well known local gallery.

ELLEN JEWETT – Sculptor