Galloping through the galleries (Part3)

Wayde Owen, "Coming and Going" Harrison Galleries.

Image: Wayde Owen, "Memory & Growth", Oil on canvas 100 x 80cm

This young artist won the 2005 Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, was a finalist in the Churchie Emerging Artist Award in 2006 and 2008, in the Metro Art Award in 2007, and has spent time as a guest of AGNSW at the Cite des Arts International in Paris. Aside from that, he's been very energetic, exhibiting in numerous high quality group exhibitions (Ray Hughes Gallery, Gold Coast City Art Gallery) and fathering a child, the subject of one of my favourite paintings in his new show ("Son of God").

The work is a change for Owen, painting now in oil colour instead of black and white acrylic or presenting an illustrative line -and the wonderful surprise is, he's turned out to be a beautiful colourist. His execution is painterly, the images strong and memorable (AND strange: I want to buy "Over the Under, (John Marsden)") and his prices more than reasonable for an artist who assuredly is dedicated and has a strong vision and equally strong future. He appears to have combined the personal story telling of his friend Alan Jones with the wackiness and line of Adam Cullen, in a personal , exciting style which explores the possibility of paint. His drawings are equally compelling - the mute effort at communication of his signature quails in "Memory drawing #1" is poignant and gets under your skin.

Go see the show, and, better, buy a painting.

Gallery Galloping

Image: Fiona White: "When I See you" Acrylic and compressed charcoal on Board, 89x74cm

Been catching up on some great exhibitions in Sydney. In the next few posts, I'll be presenting my picks of what's been, or is still happening.

Fiona White at Harrison Galleries (12th Feb -2nd March) (Title Link)

Fona White was selected for the Blake Prize for Religious art, and, to my mind, had one of the best works in the show. This lady can paint and her images cannot be ignored.

White layers thick acrylic in a flat, almost naive style which looks for all the world like enamel paint. Her colours are off-kilter, but all the more powerful for that, expressing the strange world of memory (1950's?) where her characters, mostly black (Aboriginal? Negro?) leap from the picture plane and into your soul. I fell in love with one young boy, who, I am sure, was knocking at doors on a sunny afternoon trying to engage the occupants in talk about "The Watchtower" -a painting all" innocence co-opted", revealing the awkwardness, yearning, and altruism of adolescence, and the sadness of probable rejection. Another figure floats upside-down, tossed by circumstance and history. These works are like that: you find yourself making up stories about the characters. But don't expect to happily hang these paintings over your sofa - they are too powerful for that.

Spanish Residency

Image: Gabrielle Jones, Play of Light III, Oil on Canvas, 101cm x 101cm

I have just received a letter advising me I have been selected for a one month residency in Mojacar Spain at Valparaiso Foundation. I have yet to finalise when I am going, but since I cancelled a trip to Barcelona last year (due to inadequate funds) I am wrapped! I will probably go to London first and see all those galleries and Museums I have only read about, then see some more of Spain before getting down to working in this lovely environment. The interchange with other International artists is something I am also really looking forward to.

OH...the life of a painter!

How are your affirmations going???