Ballarat Heritage Festival 2025

Selected highlights from the final two days of the Ballarat Heritage Festival on Saturday, May 24 and Sunday, May 25.  

Predominantly featured are local legends, the Ballarat People Who Promenade, of which, by virtue of a Royal Decree from HRH Queen Victoria (Megan Finlayson, pictured below, right) Shane Jones (pictured above) and I (pictured top) are loyal members. 

Incidentally, my fine designer hat, which dates from the 1940s, was inherited from my late aunt, Ballarat-born Eileen Klein. The fob watch pinned to my coat (not clearly shown in most photos) belonged to my aunt too. Shane’s antique walking stick was also passed down from the Klein family. Very possibly it was originally purchased in Ballarat.

Traditionally the Promenaders meet at the statue of Queen Victoria in Sturt Street. There we toast Her Royal Highness on the occasion of her birthday, which falls on May 24. This year she turned 206. Happy Birthday, Queen Victoria!

From here we promenaded to the Old Colonists Club for afternoon tea, followed by a leisurely stroll to Ballarat Railway Station, a short walk away.

Thank you, HRH Megan and Stationmaster Bryan Putt for inviting us to join your merry band. We had a ball and can’t wait to do it again next year. 

APW George Collie Memorial Award Exhibition: D’oyley Face

 

D'oyley Face, 1997, linocut, 46 x 36 cm, edition 15

Back in 2020, I was a recipient of the Australian Print Workshop’s 2020 APW George Collie Memorial Award, which acknowledges “Artists who have made significant and enduring contributions to the field of Australian Printmaking.”* (See also previous post). 

Traditionally, the award presentation is accompanied by an exhibition in the APW Gallery. This was originally scheduled to open on June 13, 2020. Then along came the pandemic. The rest, as they say, is history, although sad to say, COVID is still very much a part of our lives. 

The APW George Collie Memorial Award Exhibition and Presentation will finally forge ahead on Saturday August 6 from 2 - 4 pm. The 2020 Award also recognises the work of one of my printmaking and literary heroines, the late Barbara Hanrahan, alongside more recent recipients whose works I also revere, but whose names I’m not yet at liberty to divulge. It’s a tremendous honour to have my name linked with theirs and eminent past recipients Alun Leach-Jones and Kevin Lincoln (2019), Graham Fransella and Euan Heng (2018), Kitty Kantilla and John Wolseley (2017), Bea Maddock and Jennifer Marshall (2016), Grahame King and Jan Senbergs (2015) and Rick Amor and Noel Counihan (2014).

As part of the award, a special print edition has been commissioned by the APW. My hand coloured linocut entitled I wished on the moon, 2022, printed by the APW’s Simon White, will be part of the exhibition, along with a selection of earlier works. The majority are from the APW’s archives. I’ve only just noticed that one of them, D’oyley Face, 1997, pictured top, incorporates fragments of hand embroidered doilies formerly owned by my late Aunt, Eileen Klein, including the doily that was the basis for my painting, Primavera l, 2021 (see below). I had completely forgotten about this early reference to my aunt’s home textiles collection that has inspired so much of my recent work.

Eileen Klein’s doily (left) with Primavera I, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 15 cm 

The APW George Collie Memorial Award Exhibition has been a long time coming. I can’t believe it’s happening at last and hope you’ll save the date. The exhibition runs from Saturday‬ ‪August 6 to Saturday October 1, 2022. 

*From the APW website 

For Eileen

 

As Rückenfigur, my solo exhibition at Queenscliff Gallery, dwindles down to its final days, I’ve curated a selection of the paintings that take their point of departure from the doily collection of my late aunt, Eileen Elizabeth Klein. The works have been reproduced on this blog before, but this is the first time I’ve gathered them together in one post.

The above image is cropped from a photo snapped at the exhibition opening by Queenscliff Gallery’s co-director, Soula Mantalvanos. In honour of my aunt, I’m wearing a vintage cardigan and sweater she knitted at least forty years ago. I received numerous compliments about her handiwork on the day. I’m sure she would have been delighted!

Below is a photo of Auntie Eileen taken in the 1950s, very possibly earlier. The inscription on the back in my aunt’s distinctively forceful handwriting identifies the store in the background as “Rondel’s”. A little online detective work locates Rondel’s (presumably long gone) womenswear store at 110 Market Street, Sydney.

As her brother, my late Uncle Tom, used to say “Eileen had style”. 

Directly following are my paintings and the doilies that inspired them.

Patience, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm

Idyll, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm

Primavera I, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 15 cm

Primavera lI, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 15 cm

Lady in Waiting, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55.5 x 22.5 cm

Flora, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 12.5 cm

Butterfly Net, 2000-2020, acrylic on 4 canvases, 35 x 25 cm

Rückenfigur concludes on Sunday, July 10, at 4 pm. 

Primavera I

 

Primavera I, 2021, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 37 x 15 cm, recently debuted in Rückenfigur at Queenscliff Gallery. It’s one of several paintings in the show that take their inspiration from my late Auntie Eileen’s doily collection. This group of works are particularly close to my heart and will be the focus of a forthcoming post. 

For those unable to catch Rückenfigur IRL, you can view it in 3D HERE.

Photo credit: Tim Gresham.

Lady in Waiting

Lady in Waiting, 2022, diptych, acrylic on canvas, 55.5 x 22.5 cm

Photo credit: Tim Gresham 

Many years ago, I inherited a swag of vintage doilies from my late aunt, Eileen Klein. I had no real use for them, but didn’t have the heart to take them to the thrift shop. For as many years again, they languished in various drawers and cupboards in the flats and houses I’ve inhabited over the decades. Lately, however, they’ve taken on a new life. In Lady in Waiting, 2022 (pictured top) and several other paintings in Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery, they’ve become the basis for my protagonists’ decorative collars and shawls. 

A couple of developmental views are below:

Lady in Waiting nearing completion, May 2022

Progress view of Lady in Waiting with doily and Hans Holbein postcards, April 2022

Images on the postcards pictured above: A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling, Jane Seymour and Portrait of a Woman from Southern Germany by Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543). Holbein’s work has been a source of inspiration since my late teens when my mother presented me with a book of his drawings as a birthday gift.

Rückenfigur opens at Queenscliff Gallery on June 23 and runs to July 10, 2022.

The Opening Event is on Sunday June 26 from 2 - 4 pm.

Queenscliff Gallery 

P 03 4202 0942 | A 81 Hesse Street Queenscliff VIC 3225 

For further information, including an invitation to Rückenfigur, scroll down to my previous post.

Slow progress

 

Recently I set up a temporary studio in our dining room, as it’s adjacent to the living room where we’ve been screening our selections from this year’s Melbourne International Film Festival. (See Blog Post Thursday, August 12). The paintings shown here will be diptychs. Elements of the designs in the two pieces of needlework, both hand-stitched in the last century (possibly the late 1930s) by my late aunt, Eileen Klein, will be incorporated into the bottom panels. 

Progress on the new work has been slow, partly because we’ve been streaming films all week, but mainly because my chair has been hijacked. The works will be completed in time for Rückenfigur, my upcoming solo show at Queenscliff Gallery, or Alice will have to answer to it.