A graduate of the College of Fine Arts (COFA) - now UNSW Art & Design - Jessica completed a Bachelor of Design in 2013. Majoring in jewellery, furniture and lighting design, her artwork encompasses her understanding of all three as she translates her unique vision of the world into arresting, abstract paintings.
“My art practice is largely based on the beauty of layering. I build up various colours and textures to create pieces that have depth. I like to work in acrylic as a base and then move into oils to thicken up the top layers. The mix of the two allows me to create dimensions in each work.”
Sharonne Solk studied art at Brighton Faculty of Fine Art Art was chosen to exhibit at the prestigious ‘Great British and Dutch New Contemporaries’ in 1991.in the UK
For the two decades post college, Sharonne used her creative sensibilities to develop animated characters for both George Lucas in the USA, and George Miller in Australia, on movies such as Star Wars, The Mummy, and Happy Feet 2.
In 2012 she returned to her art practice, immersing herself in the sensation of colour. She writes: "I want colour to be the hero, to speak for itself, and so my images are abstract and pure, with hand-painted horizontal lines; a simple geometry with an imperfect human edge. I use oil on canvas, layering multiple glazes to heighten resonance, intensity and translucency, creating paintings that seek the exquisite."
Anne Spencer (BA Dip. Ed. - Macq Uni) is a Sydney based artist whose artwork continues to attract a strong following since her first exhibition ‘Luminosity’ in 2005 at Newport Artworks; a sellout of 24 paintings,
In 2012 she returned to her art practice, immersing herselfin the sensation of colour.
Corot, quoted by Wolf Kahn (USA 2013) famously said"an artist thinks with a brush in his hand".
She writes: I think with a brush in my hand. I need a brush to think. The process begins with that brush, the thinking begins with that brush and I paint what I feel about what I have witnessed. This witnessing is usually a celebration, a celebration of the joy of being there , expressed in oil paint from memory and imagination. Thus vibrant swatches of colours, warms and cools, juxtaposed, often mixed from just a few tubes of paint colour, strong line, free and expressive , movement; and where it fits- a whimsical edge to my work. JOY.
”One such witnessing which stimulated my eagerness to paint refugees' abandoned at sea-21st century', was an exhibition in NYC of a series of work on the Raft of the Medusa - by Martin Kippenberger, done not long before his death in 1996 at the age of 44. His work was based on Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa (1819) , immortalising a French national tragedy in 1816 when a raft carrying 147 survivors from a sinking French frigate was cut loose from the lifeboats carrying the survivors with more status,--- with no oars, rudder, sail, food etc and left for 13 days abandoned at sea. 17 survived. A dreadful murder of innocent lives but in the hands of Kippenberger , a monumental tour de force of contemporary art. I loved it. It struck a nerve and I wanted to paint my version, so poignant today, 200 years later than the tragedy. Two versions inspired by these works are displayed in this Exhibition.
Sally Stokes is a Sydney based artist with a prolific exhibiting history in NSW. Trained at Flinders University in Fine Arts, and with further education at the National Art School. Sally's canvases are vibrant abstract renditions of Australia's natural beauty. Elizabeth Fortescue wrote in the Sydney Daily Telegraph in 2014:
During the last three winters, Sally Stokes undertook journeys to more than a dozen of Australia’s most visually stunning and remote locations. In Western Australia, Stokes witnessed British artist Antony Gormley’s uncanny sculptures stalking across the white salt vastness of Lake Ballard. She was captivated by the stripy sandstone domes at Purnululu, and by the Tunnel Creek cave system which lies beneath the Napier Range. She visited the extraordinary stepped waterfall of Bell Gorge in the Kimberley, and the Wolfe Creek Crater whose mystical appearance gave rise to indigenous dreaming stories. In the Northern Territory, Stokes visited the West Macdonnells near Ormiston. She saw the indigenous rock engravings of Ndhala Gorge and the rockpools of Hancock Gorge in Karijini National Park. At Gunlom Falls in Kakadu National Park, she stood on the rocks above the area’s famous 30-metre waterfall. There were other locations, as well. Together, they provided a deep well of inspiration which Stokes carried back to her studio in Dural, northwest of Sydney. With the visual impact of her travels fresh in her mind, and with photographs and sketchbooks as aides memoires, Stokes slowly and meditatively created the large suite of paintings from which this exhibition has been selected. It is so easy to find joy, spirituality and the love of life in all of Stokes’ paintings. They exhale the sheer delight of the artist as she allows her extraordinary outback journey to permeate her entire being and to be reborn in these remarkable paintings which speak so eloquently of a life devoted to art. These paintings are not careful renderings of the Australian scenery — they are a visceral and heartfelt response in colour, line and texture to the never-ending gravity of the outback. Click here to see more of Sally's work
Neil Wilson is a Sydney based art collector and photographer. Neil's rendering of domestic scenes. are the centrepiece of his work. What intrigues us is the composition, drama and individuality of these images.