Opening tomorrow: BLUE PERIOD

 

BLUE PERIOD,
One Star Gallery,
301-303 Victoria Street,
West Melbourne Vic.

OPENING EVENT: Friday, December 1, 6-9 pm

“Of the colors, blue and green have the greatest emotional range. Sad reds and melancholy yellows are difficult to turn up. Among the ancient elements, blue occurs everywhere: in ice and water, in the flame as purely as in the flower, overhead and inside caves, covering fruit and oozing out of clay. Although green enlivens the earth and mixes in the ocean, and we find it, copperish, in fire; green air, green skies, are rare. Gray and brown are widely distributed, but there are no joyful swatches of either, or any of exuberant black, sullen pink, or acquiescent orange. Blue is therefore most suitable as the color of interior life. Whether slick light sharp high bright thin quick sour new and cool or low deep sweet dark soft slow smooth heavy old and warm: blue moves easily among them all, and all profoundly qualify our states of feeling.”

- William H. Gass, On Being Blue, 1975

Artists: Amanda Florence, Andrée Van Schaik, Ann Holt, Anne Algar, Astrid Munday, Camilla Gold, Camille Hannah, Clare Larman, Deborah Amon-Cotter, Deborah Klein, Deborah Walker, Jane Burton, Jaqui Stockdale, Jessica Kritzer, Katrina Beale, Linda Gibbs, Lisa Barmby, Lisa Walker, Marion Harper, Melody Woodnutt, Mimi Kelly, Mina Young, Moya Delany, Rhonda Dredge, Sarah Faulkner, Sonia Payes, Tina Douglas, Tiffany Titshall, Victoria Hartcup, Wendy Morrissey and Xanthe Waite

Exhibition dates: November 30 - December 17

Hours: Th-Fri 3-7 pm, Sat 1-7pm, Sun 1-5 pm, or by appointment: 0432 357537

Pictured top: Deborah Klein, Idyll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm

Recent activities

On Saturday afternoon we dropped off my three works to One Star Gallery  in readiness for Blue Period, an exhibition of diverse works by 33 women artists, the second of its kind to be curated by Katy Beale and Mariella Del Conte. 

Pictured top, L-R: Idyll, Waiting, and Recollection, all 2021, acrylic on canvas, freshly unpacked at One Star Gallery. I’m excited to see everyone’s work at the opening night this Friday, 1 December, 6-9 pm. 

Scroll down to my previous post for further information.

Pictured above: The following afternoon Shane Jones and I attended day 2 of the weekend-long launch of Milk Shed Studio at Weerite near Camperdown. Huge congratulations to Harley Manifold for bringing this extraordinary project to fruition, and to all 26 exhibiting artists, including Kathryn Ryan, pictured third from left, and Julie Keating, pictured far right.

BLUE PERIOD

Three of my paintings, including Recollection, 2021, have been selected for BLUE PERIOD, an upcoming exhibition at One Star Gallery curated by Katy Beale and Mariella Del Conte. 

Scroll down for your invitation to BLUE PERIOD. Click on the invitation for a clearer view..

Exhibiting artists:

Amanda Florence, Andrée Van Schaik, Ann Holt, Anne Algar, Astrid Munday, Camilla Gold, Camille Hannah, Clare Larman, Deborah Amon-Cotter, Deborah Klein, Deborah Walker, Jane Burton, Jaqui Stockdale, Jessica Kritzer, Katrina Beale, Linda Gibbs, Lisa Barmby, Lisa Walker, Marion Harper, Melody Woodnutt, Mimi Kelly, Mina Young, Moya Delany, Rhonda Dredge, Sarah Faulkner, Sonia Payes, Tina Douglas, Tiffany Titshall, Victoria Hartcup, Wendy Morrissey, Xanthe Waite. 

BLUE PERIOD

OPENING FRIDAY DEC 1st 6-9 pm

One Star Gallery

301-303 Victoria Street

West Melbourne 3003

Exhibition dates:

November 30 - December 17

Hours: Th-Fri 3-7 pm, Sat 1-7pm, Sun 1-5 pm

Or by appointment ph. 0432 357537

Pictured top: Recollection, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 20 x 15 cm (top panel); 17.5 x 12.5 cm (bottom panel).

Interview at ABC Ballarat and WHEREABOUTS Curator’s Talk

At ABC Ballarat early this morning I chatted with morning presenter Matt Tribe about books, film, the visual arts, travel and numerous other interests and influences on my work - in particular on my linocut Swan Lake, part of the new exhibition Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond at the Art Gallery of Ballarat. 

Thanks to the warm welcome I received from Matt and his technical assistant, Gav, I had such a good time, I completely forgot to feel nervous. 

The link to the program is here:

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/saturday-breakfast/deborah-klein/103121864

Whereabouts, an exhibition comprising works by 56 Victorian printmakers, opened today. 

In the afternoon from 2 - 3 pm we attended Whereabouts curator Rona Green’s engaging and informative talk about the background to the exhibition, the artists involved and the various techniques employed in their works. 

The exhibition is superb, a celebration of printmaking in all its forms. 

Installation views will follow shortly. 

Pictured above L-R: Whereabouts artists Miranda Costa, Rona Green and myself. The works behind us from L-R are Rona’s, mine and Miranda’s.

Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond runs from 18 November 2023 - 4 February 2024. 

See my previous post for further details, including a complete list of artists.

WHEREABOUTS: Printmakers Respond

I’m delighted to be part of the much anticipated group exhibition Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond at the Art Gallery of Ballarat, opening to the public tomorrow, Saturday 18 November.

From 2pm – 3pm on the same day, curator and participating artist Rona Green will present a talk about the show. It is a ticketed event; booking information is on the AGB website:

https://www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au/event/curator-talk-rona-green-on-whereabouts

The lead-up to an exhibition of this scale is necessarily a long one. Work on my own contribution, the linocut Swan Lake, was begun in May 2022 when I was artist-in-residence at Geelong Grammar School. A couple of early progress views, snapped in the Corio Campus studio, are pictured top and directly below. The completed work will be discussed more fully in a forthcoming post, along with some exciting news.

It’s a privilege to be exhibiting with such a stellar lineup of artists. Warmest thanks to Rona for inviting me to join them and for her tireless work in bringing the exhibition together. 

Artists: Sue Anderson, Elizabeth Banfield, Matthew Clarke, Paul Compton, Miranda Costa, Fiona Davey, Rachel Derum, Mark Dustin, Grace Eve, Philip Faulks, Kevin Foley, Eleanor Franks, David Frazer, Tyronne Gietzmann, Silvi Glattauer, Jackie Gorring, Rona Green, Gracia Haby & Louise Jennison, Greg Harrison, Bill Hay, Judy Horacek, Anita Iacovella, Kyoko Imazu, Deborah Klein, Gillian Kline, Anita Laurence, Dianne Longley, Michael Lye, Marion Manifold, Cassie May, Aaron McLoughlin, Glenn Morgan, Carnegie Muir, Angela Nagel, Billy Nye, James Pasakos, Jim Pavlidis, Catherine Pilgrim, Michael Reynolds, Cathy Ronalds, David Rosengrave, John Ryrie, Libby Schreiber, Gwen Scott, Heather Shimmen, Glen Smith, Ruth Stanton, Neale Stratford, Sophia Szilagyi, Helen Timbury, Clayton Tremlett, Peter Ward, Deborah Williams, Joel Wolter and Jessi Wong.

Whereabouts: Printmakers Respond

18 November 2023 - 4 February 2024

Art Gallery of Ballarat

40 Lydiard Street North,

Wadawurrung Country, Ballarat VIC 3350

Halloween 2023

Remembering London this All Hallows Eve

Photos 1-2 above: Louise Bourgeois, Spider V, 1999, bronze and steel; 

Photos 3-4 below: Louise Bourgeois, Spider Home, 2002, bronze spiders and fly, welded bronze wire web, wood base. 

Installation views from The Mother and the Weaver, Art from the Ursula Hauser Collection at the Foundling Museum, London, current to 18 February 2024. 

Photos 5-7 below: Spooktacular views of a house in Hampstead, a few doors down from where I stayed during my recent trip.

Happy Halloween, boys and ghouls. 🎃🕷️🕸️

The Last of England

Snapped last Thursday in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge: Ford Maddox Brown’s The Last of England. 

And so it is for me today. Goodbye, London, until next time. 

Pictured top: Ford Maddox Brown, The Last of England, 1860, oil on canvas. A reworking of Brown’s 1855 painting in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the work commemorates the departure for Australia of the sculptor Thomas Woolner and his family in July 1852. 

Sir John Soane’s Museum

Yesterday I spent a few hours in the Wunderkammer that is Sir John Soane’s Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields, another of my all-time favourite museums. 

Sir John Soane (1753-1837) was a Regency period architect working in the Neo-Classical style. The museum, which holds his substantial collection of antiquities, paintings, sculptures and drawings, is one of many significant buildings he designed. Dulwich Picture Gallery, the first purpose-built public picture gallery in Britain, is another. 

Leighton House

Pictured above and below: the glorious Narcissus Hall and adjoining Staircase Hall (last 2 photos) of Leighton House in Holland Park, London. I’ve visited the former home and studio of artist Frederic Leighton (1830-96) many times over the years, in fact in the mid-1970s, I lived on the other side of beautiful Holland Park, on Holland Park Avenue. The area will always occupy a special place in my heart. 

Leighton House was designed by George Aitchison. Nearby Sambourne House, formerly the home the home of Punch magazine illustrator Edward Linley, is also highly recommended.  

William Larkin at Kenwood House

Whenever I come to London, I never fail to make a pilgrimage to the paintings by William Larkin (early 1580s-1619), part of the Suffolk Collection on the first floor of Kenwood House in Hampstead. On my first visit to Kenwood, soon after my arrival here, the upper floor was closed due to insufficient volunteer guides to man the space. (This has often been the case on my past visits, or, as with yesterday, the works were only on view for a few hours). Kenwood houses the largest collection of this extraordinary, shamefully underrated painter’s work. 

An English court painter from the Jacobean period that immediately proceeded the Elizabethan era, Larkin was long referred to as the ‘Curtain Master’. Beyond this, comparatively little is known of his life. In my opinion, a monograph and a retrospective of his work are way overdue. 

Pictured above:

1: Lady Isabel Rich, née Cope, c. 1614-18;

2: Lady Diana Cecil, c. 1614-18

3: Probably Elizabeth Cary, née Stanfield, c. 1614-18;

4: Catherine Knevet, c.1615;

5: Anne Cecil, Countess of Stamford c.1615;

6: Elizabeth Drury, Countess of Exeter, c.1615;

7: L-R Richard Sackville, c.1613 and Edward Sackville c.1613; 

8-10: Installation views.

All works are oil on canvas.