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Davida Allen, Elizabeth Cummings, Jeff Makin, Jun Chen, Lisa Adams, Stanthorpe Regional Art Gallery
This gallery suits my attention span beautifully. About 20 paintings, sparsely displayed, means I can pay due attention to each one without feeling overwhelmed. There are two current exhibitions: landscapes that have won the Tattersall Art Prize over the years, liberated from the Tattersall's club house in Brisbane as a travelling exhibition: and photographs from the Granite Belt Wine Country Photography Competition. There are also glass cases showcasing the works of local artists. All this in a spacious, low-ceilinged main room, and a smaller upstairs section.
The painting that spoke most to my own experience was the man painting the mountains, a tiny insignificant figure attempting to capture immensity: no image and no attribution because my photo was too blurry. Lisa Adams' tree swan appealed because fantasy was located very close to reality in a very real landscape, and I liked Davida Allen's improbable palette in Cattle in fog at sunrise and the luminosity of Jeff Makin's Rubicon Valley.
I'm attracted to the macro in paintings as I am in nature, so I've taken the liberty of segmenting a few paintings where the paint-work was particularly viscous, the brush strokes visible, and the colours rich as I savour the part as well as the whole: Elizabeth Cummings' Stradbroke noon and Jun Chen's Brisbane River.
The photos didn't hold as much interest because I can take photos, not as good as the ones exhibited, but in the zone. I cannot wield a paintbrush.
Lisa Adams: Cold wind
Jeff Makin: Rubicon Valley
Davida Allen: Cattle in fog at sunrise
Jun Chen: Brisbane River
Elizabeth Cummings: Stradbroke noon
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snippetsandsnaps 
The Rubicon Valley interests me because I am attracted to bright colours at the moment. I imagined it to be California or some other almost desert state, but looking it up I see that the Rubicon Valley is in fact in New Zealand! A country not known for its deserts! I would love to be able to paint. The colours of warmth and wind and sea.
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Me too! I didn’t even think of looking up the whereabouts of the valley. I’ve enjoyed hearing people’s preferences and their reasons.
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I love Lisa Adam’s Cold Wind. You can almost feel it behind the brush strokes… But now you’ve got me curious about the other mysterious painting of a man painting the mountain!
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I can try a rough description, but the photo was so blurry I couldn’t even read the name of the artist to google him, and the exhibition closed before I realised my photographic failure. The artist was a tiny figure in blue in the bottom left-hand corner, and the mountain were range upon range of dark inhospitable awe-inspiring peaks, crowding each other, with a hint of blue sky in a line at the top of the painting. Words are inadequate – and interpretive. You might see it differently!
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I’m intrigued… Your description must be good! š
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I asked at the gallery. The painting was by Euan Macleod and was called “Painting mountains”. The images I found via google were blurry too, and the mountains didn’t look nearly as dark as I represented them.
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Is Stradbroke the one on the wall in your first photo? If so I rather like it but I think work like this need to be seen in the flesh to appreciate it fully. I do like tree swan, it reminds me of the stunted windswept trees on Dartmoor.
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Yes, that’s the one, and I passed it by on my first trawl through the exhibition. It wasn’t till I started my close-ups that I began to appreciate it, as paintwork and as a whole. To my shame, it was the artist’s name that drew me back, and her links with two of my friends.
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I’m fascinated by the close ups of Brisbane River! Isn’t that sky amazing? I have no understanding of the technique either, Meg, but some things are very tactile. Love your representations. š
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One of my great delights in Broken Hill was gallery sitting for a friend who painted, but also carved – I could fondle sculptures to my heart’s content!
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That sounds delicious! š
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I like how you have displayed the art works in this post along with close-ups of the detail. I loved Jun Chen’s Brisbane River, I could live with that on my walls and never get tired of the rich, vibrant colours and the paint almost applied as a sculptural effect (with a pallet knife I would guess) and the almost abstract 3D effect.
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Now that’s what I like! I’ve come late to knowing a bit about art, and your comment explains a lot. I love that density of paint – I spent a lot of time scrutinising it in Arthur Boyd’s paintings at his recent exhibition. Dunno that Tattersall’s would hand it over to you but you could try. I’d write you a reference. It was such a relief to be able to photograph: I really need an aide memoire, and I get a bit sick of copious jottings and puny sketches.
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I am quite amazed that so many galleries allow photos now. At the Brisbane gallery they will not allow you to use tripods as that constitutes a professional photo. I do not have much knowledge about art and paintings, I would love to know more.
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It didn’t occur to me to photograph in a gallery until I saw everyone doing it in the National Gallery in Warsaw. Now I always ask. On one occasion I was told it was fine; my camera would only take poor quality photos anyway!
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We are so lucky to live in this digital and computer age as it opens up so many possibilities. Yes I always ask too and nearly always the answer is “it is OK”…
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It’s very interesting to read of another’s reaction to a gallery visit Meg. We get so wrapped up in our own perceptions. The Rubicon Valley is probably the one closest to my own current tastes but its very interesting to view the rest through another’s eyes. The ones of Stradbroke remind you of your photos of bark – have you ever thought about interpreting your photos in paint? I can imagine you would be bring a highly intelligent sensibility to it.
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I love comparing tastes. Predicting what someone else would like is a dicey business – “Rubicon Valley” would have been my last choice for you, given what little I know of you. Hurrah for unpredictability. You are an artist, so it’s all doubly interesting. What appeals to you about “Rubicon Valley”? Educate me if you have a moment! I have thought of interpreting photos in paint, but the mere thought of wielding a paintbrush gives me the incompetency terrors.
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I looked at your post after looking at Georgia o’Keefe’s Lake George paintings online. I was thinking about simplified landscape paintings with large areas of flat colour. I saw a similarity in the Rubicon painting. I knew you’d say something like aboutvpainting. I feel the same these days. We look at the greats and see their masterpieces then jufge ourselves against them. We forget theyhad to learn how to do it. I guess that’s why the O’Keefe paintings appeal to me right now. I can imagine doing paintings like that.
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