Where the wild things art
THERE’S a bit of the wild thing in all of us. There’s also a bit of the artist.
Put them together and you’ll be well on the way to winning a major prize in the Ocean Shores Art Expo in August. This year’s theme is Wild Things and the expo committee is welcoming people of all ages and backgrounds to show their creative side.
‘Don’t be afraid to express yourself,’ schools co-ordinator Richard Heazlewood-Ross said. ‘This is a fantastic, fun theme that opens up an infinite number of possibilities in a range of art forms. It’s a chance for everyone and anyone to unleash the wild thing within and let their imagination run wild.’
Committee secretary Mary Bernard said the art expo fostered emerging artists. ‘It’s an incredible showcase of local talent and a coming together of the community to share ideas, express themselves and have a lot of fun in the process,’ she said.
But this is not a case of ‘art for art’s sake’. The expo puts heart into art by donating profits to charity. Last year’s ‘Home’ theme not only provided a flurry of amazing artwork, but saw the Byron Youth House, Grace Space and the Mullumbimby Soup Kitchen receiving $1,000 each as a result.
Sponsorship co-ordinator Clency Bernard said that being able to provide funding support for local organisations was a great way of giving back to the community.
The expo has six art categories, including Water Colour and Gouche, Printmaking, Drawing and Pastels, Oil and Acrylic, Mixed Media, Sculpture and Photographic, and Digital Art, with prizes in each to the value of $700.
It runs from Friday 28 August to Sunday 30 August.
Answer the call of the wild and visit the expo website on www.osartexpo.com for more details on how to enter.
To sponsor the event, contact Clency Bernard on
0432 374 662.
What’s in a memory?
A group of three exhibitions explore that very question from three varied and unique perspectives this May at The Northern Rivers Community Gallery (NRCG) in Ballina.
AgX by Grayson Cooke is an art-science project about memory and forgetting; a multisensory digital art experience featuring time-lapse macro-photography of negatives being chemically destroyed.
The AgX project is a powerful and thought-provoking reflection on how photography works as a form of external memory. AgX is chemical shorthand for silver halides that are the light-sensitive compounds constituting the celluloid image. Silver halides are historically implicated in personal and collective memory – and could be viewed almost as the DNA of the modern archive.
The Passing by Skye Baker presents a series of contemporary drawings that focus on the geographical and psychological boundaries within the island form.
The mixed-media works form an archipelago, a cluster of islands, symbolic of the connectedness of humanity and nature.
Kate Hallen’s evocative works in Fight // Flight investigate the psychological landscape experienced by a soldier’s returning from battle to civilian life and the resulting tension that emerges as post-traumatic stress. Kate’s works force the viewer to contemplate the sinister and often hidden complications of war. On first impression, the dark colour palette appears to be a graceful streamlined marine bird diving for fish, but later it transforms into a torpedo bearing down on an unseen target.
These exhibitions continue until Sunday 24 May 2015. For further information contact www.ballina.nsw.gov.au/nrcg or phone 6681 6167.
Tweed Regional Gallery
Glimpse – Christian Halford
Until Sunday 14 June
Glimpse explores the renaissance of candid moments bought about through the possibilities of paint.
The genres of portraiture and figurative painting have been primary foci in this series of work by Christian Halford. Tactility and expression through paint enables Halford to capture his subjects and to create works that are imbued with movement vitality and wonder. Between the dialog of under-painting and over-painting Halford creates works that ignite deeper complexities allowing Halford to take risks, use his intuition and generate an exciting experience for the painter and for the viewer.
‘Painting offers moments that are alive; moments that are a Glimpse in time.’ Christian Halford.
artgallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au 6670 2790
10% DISCOUNT FOR ART STUDENTS
Have you checked out the awesome little art section in the Bangalow Newsagency? We stock fine art supplies, quality artists paper and brushes for students and discerning artists. And, we offer a 10 per cent discount on our art supplies for art students – check us out the next time you’re in Bangalow.
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An awesome little art shop in the heart of Bangalow!
26 Byron St, Bangalow. 6687 1396
Lismore Regional Gallery
Dear Bodhi: Judy Cassab. Cassab has an ongoing relationship with the northern rivers, primarily through her son John Seed, grandson Bodhi, and Bodhi Farm. The exhibition traces memories of family and landscape by this renowned Australian artist. It includes illustrated letters to Bodhi, written in the 80s, portraits of the family, and paintings Cassab made around the northern rivers, at The Channon, Bald Rock and Byron Bay.
Cosmology in Me: Michael Philp. Born in 1966 in Tweed Heads, Michael Philp is a Minjungbal man, a tribe of the Bundjalung nation. His father was a white fisherman and his mother a Murri woman. Philp’s lyrical, poignant works are about experiences that have affected him and this exhibition brings together two bodies of work from different periods of his life.
6622 2209. www.lismoregallery.org
Rock of Ages Tattoo Parlour
In the last few years of its seven-year existence, Rock of Ages Tattoo Parlour has proven itself to be the go-to tattoo studio of the northern rivers. With more than 35 years of collective experience between them and with a variety of styles catered for, they continue to push this beautiful and unusual art form to its outermost limits. The studio has recently been renovated to provide better service for clients and there is now a tattoo artist on call permanently for any walk-in tattoos.
Call the studio for an appointment: 6687 5872.
Sam Sosnowski
Sam Sosnowski is an established artist and printmaker. He has taught classes in drawing and printing at university and TAFE and is a patient and effective teacher. Drawing workshops are tailored for beginners, presenting how to draw in a structured way covering point, line, perspective and finishing with a life model.
Printing workshops are over one weekend and are a great introduction to positive/negative shapes and hand printing without needing expensive tools and equipment.
Sam also holds regular untutored life drawing sessions every Thursday evening.
All classes are held in Mullumbimby. Call Sam for more information on 0411 725 500.
Raw Exposure
RAW: Natural Born Artists is an independent arts organisation for artists, by artists. RAW’s mission is to provide independent artists of all creative genres with the tools, resources and exposure needed to inspire and cultivate creativity. RAW connects artists with one another so that they might grow together. RAW hosts events in 60+ cities across the US, Australia, Canada and the UK. They also showcase their artists online via www.RAWartists.org.
The emerging arts showcase featuring 30 of Byron Bay’s best emerging talent spanning genres such as fashion, music, visual and performing arts, and photography is at the Byron Brewery on Friday 22 May. Doors open at 7.30pm.
Tickets are $16.50 (+bf) and are available through www.RAWartists.org/byronbay/sensory or are $20 on the door.
