Monday, September 24, 2012
New Friday Night Art Program
Friday Night Art returns after the October School Holidays!
The program will focus on a lino printing project, which will
incorporate drawing skills with some practical printmaking skills.
Ideal for any level, printmaking is fun, hands on and can be very messy!
The project will be run by Melissa Daw and assisted by Amber Perryman.
Dates for your diary are:
Friday 19th October
Friday 9th November
Friday 30th November
the gallery opens at 7pm and the session starts at 7.30pm.
Members $5, Non-members $10
Another Excellent Art Exhibition!
Jumping Through Hoops by Cat Tink |
Dunnart Studio Gallery |
The friendly Van Gogh scarecrow greets visitors. |
Leger's machine man awaits you in the garden. |
Walk past Johnny the mummy if you dare! |
The Ravensthorpe District Art Group’s 2012 exhibition opened with a well attended wine and cheese evening on Friday 7th September. This year the “Year of the Farmer” theme was relatively low in entries but high in enthusiasm and quality.
Lynnell then introduced guest judge Carolyn Gilles-Gray to present the awards. Carolyn, an experienced artist and art educator with a passion for encouraging community participation in the arts, began by informing the crowd of her judging criteria. This not only included skill in the chosen media, techniques and composition but also attention to the exhibition theme. Carolyn was overall very impressed with the standard and variety of work on display.
The children’s awards were presented first, with prizes
going to the youngest participant Isla Perryman for her painting Ribbon the Rabbit, Sethan Francis for
his painting Yabbying at the Farm Dam,
Samantha Francis for her painting Seeds
Growing in the Mud and Jai Daw for his bright painting Farm Mow Mow. Harmony Daw
was awarded a prize for her delicate sculpture Farm Kangaroo, which Carolyn thought was a lovely use of mixed
media. The Year 2-4 Section was won
overall by Amberley Daw with her work titled Rustic Farming. Carolyn
spoke most highly of Amberley’s innovative combination of metal and organic
materials...a growing, changing piece.
Well done Amberley! (I bet your
Art teacher is super proud of you!)
Carolyn then moved on to the adult categories, beginning
with the drawing. Since there were only
two works in this section it was decided to award a Highly Commended to Cat
Tink for her superb pencil rendition of Tess-Kelpie
Cross Pup. In the painting category
Carolyn was undecided between two entries and asked if she could split the
prize, only to find out that her winning selections were painted by the same
artist; so awards went to Mel Daw for Spotlight,
for “use of colour, design and concept” and The
Farmer Needs a Wife, “an emotive, powerful and truthful work”. A Highly Commended went to Amber Perryman’s
large painting, First Fruits for
“skilful us of media, colour and scale”.
Cat Tink won the photography section with Lamps and Shears which, as Carolyn
mentioned, summed up a farmer and his shed beautifully. Cat was called upon once again to receive an
award for her sculpture Jumping Through
Hoops and a Highly Commended went to Shirl Sutherland for her “quirky”
sculpture Snake Vine. Amber Perry won the Other category with her
printmaking piece titled One Horse Power
and Robyn Brayshaw received a Highly Commended in this section for Fish Hanger.
The highlight of the evening was when a much surprised Bec
Davies was announced as receiving a Highly Commended in the Shire Acquisition
Prize for her painting First Farmer. Carolyn commended Bec for her “statement,
concept and originality”. (Congratulations
Bec; all those Friday Night Art Nights were well spent!) The final award of the evening was to the winner
of the Shire of Ravensthorpe Acquisition Prize, going to our own Lynnell Belli
for her watercolour, Nutbush.
Carolyn concluded the awards by congratulating all the
winners and indeed all the contributing artists for having the courage and
conviction to bring their ideas to fruition and help make the exhibition successful. It was then Carolyn’s turn to be on the
receiving end of a gift from the very appreciative Ravensthorpe District Art
Group for lending her time and expertise to not only judge the show but also to
attend the evening, give out awards and make herself available for those with
any queries of her judging process. We
look forward to working with Carolyn in the future.
Once the formal part of the evening was over it was time to
relax and mingle whilst partaking in a nice drop of red, (or white). The Dunnart Gallery; what a wonderful place
to mix with friends and ponder life, art and the wonders of the universe! Apparently much pondering went on quite late
that night!
When the gallery opened the following morning, visitors were
welcomed down the laneway with a colourful display of flags and some awesome
scarecrows made by school children from Ravensthorpe and Hopetoun. The intention was to have a winning scarecrow
announced at the end of the exhibition...but unfortunately all of them were so
fantastic that nobody was brave enough to choose a favourite! The scarecrows were all well made (even
surviving the 120knot winds we had in the last week) and very creative; based
on modern artists and the local area.
Congratulations to all the students involved, your scarecrows
transformed the gallery garden!
Kandinskyinspired scarecrow relaxing on the verandah |
Picasso waves in guests from the back gate. |
Inspired by Miro. |
A Warhol inspired scarecrow |
The Jackson Pollock scarecrow lurks in the back yard. |
The exhibition closed on Sunday 23rd September with an official opening of the Farm Gate Art Trail launched by Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council President Jennifer Chambers. Hairball once again graced us with their presence, providing some interesting insights into the future with their unique tea reading abilities. We will look forward to “Shirtloads” of money for our future community arts projects!
The winner of our raffle, the gorgeous farm quilt donated by
Mrs Judy Harp, was won by Susan Sensen from Tumbi Umbi , NSW. We rang Ms Sensen who was ecstatic at the news,
claiming it to be the first thing she had ever won. We are pleased that Judy’s quilt will go to a
loving home.
Finally, the winner of our Popular Vote competition was our
very own Cathy Tink with her beautiful drawing of Tess- Kelpie Pup. Congratulations Cathy, we know Jungle will be
stoked!
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Handmade book project
Gallery member Amber Perryman today helped to facilitate a workshop at the Ravensthorpe CRC. The workshop focussed on creating a handmade book so that participants could tell their story. As part of the wider project organised by the Ravensthorpe Regional Arts Council, participants met with visiting author in residence Carina Hoang who also shared from her personal experiences about the Vietnamese exodus 1975-1996.
To read more see the Rave about arts blog link.
To read more see the Rave about arts blog link.
Getting ready for the exhibition !
The gallery is swept and scrubbed, the garden raked and everything is looking super spiffy- right in time to receive your entries to this year's exhibition.
Don't forget - drop your work in here this Saturday 1st Sept between 9 and 11am. Please bring it ready to hang .
Don't forget - drop your work in here this Saturday 1st Sept between 9 and 11am. Please bring it ready to hang .
Sunday, August 19, 2012
The Last Friday Night Art!
Friday 24th August will be the last Ladies Only Friday Night Art until further notice. It will be a basket weaving workshop, commencing at 7pm.
We will not be running Friday Night sessions during the Year of the Farmer exhibtion so stay tuned to find out the dates and program of events for Term 3.
All inquiries can be directed to madmallees@westnet.com.au
We will not be running Friday Night sessions during the Year of the Farmer exhibtion so stay tuned to find out the dates and program of events for Term 3.
All inquiries can be directed to madmallees@westnet.com.au
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Casual Art Saturdays
Confirmed dates for Casual Art Saturdays until November are:
August 11th
August 25th
October 13th
October 27th
August 11th
August 25th
October 13th
October 27th
(there are no casual art saturdays in September due to the 'Year of the Farmer' exhibition being on.
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