In a fit of idleness, I find myself flicking through the arts section of Australian ABC iView, amongst a series of short documentaries about artists who paint outside and big. I’ve always been intrigued by murals and their scale. My first encounter with a mural was a trompe d’oeil window on the living room wall of an artist friend who’d just liberated herself from an obnoxious and controlling husband. More recently, I’ve been relishing the street art icelandpenny uncovers and keeps uncovering in Canada.
So I am ready for the artists featured in the segments of ArtBites called “The wanderers.” There I meet a number of young Australian artists who ramble around the world painting on walls and other large public surfaces, and bonding with communities. My favourites all paint in Australian country towns, familiar landscapes to me, where they talk to the locals to get a feel for place and story.
Guido Van Helten has left his mark in many countries. In Manildra in central western NSW, population about 500, his chosen canvas is the side of freight trains carrying flour from the biggest flour mill in the southern hemisphere. He chooses local faces, photographs them and then reduces them to eyes, because “whole faces aren’t the right shape for a railway carriage”. He attracts an audience as he works, locals intrigued by seeing people they know emerge from the steel.
Nowra is one of the destinations of the train: it’s also the station where I change from bus to train when I travel to Sydney, so who knows? If I miss out there, he has also painted in my daughter’s work-town of Stanthorpe. When I visit in the middle of the year, I’ll definitely be able to see one of his pieces in person.
(Photos from Google images)
Georgia Hill is an unlikely mural artist at first sight. Her art is precise, black and white, and features lettering. She goes to Tarraleah, a small isolated hydro electricity town in Tasmania, expecting to be drawn to the Art Deco buildings and other structures but instead finds herself attracted to the stories of people. Her painting has to be done in a hurry to beat the weather, and she paints for two days from 8am to 1am.
(The photo is a screen dump from the documentary.)
Amok Island travels to the Heron Island research facility on the Great Barrier Reef and nearby Yeppoon for his segment of “The wanderers”, exploring underwater for his images. He works very precisely, designing on the computer and aiming for realism abstracted, mathematics with heart. He’s a keen underwater photographer and says that tracking down a hard-to-find underwater creature satisfies him in the same way that placing his graffiti in a spot that was really hard to reach did when he was a graffiti artist. His Barrier Reef images he paints on walls, but the link takes you to banksias on silos and other images he has left all over the world on a variety of surfaces.
(Photos are screen dumps from the documentary)
The other artists featured in The Wanderers series are Elliott Routledge, DabsMyla, and Rone.
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Lucid Gypsy said:
I’d love to see those faces fly by on a train, they’re stunning, and wouldn’t it be fab to have your face on one?
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morselsandscraps said:
I love the photo I stole of the train powering through our landscape. The artist was a bit delighted at the thought that carriages would be uncoupled and sent off in different directions, mystifying passers by. Hope they don’t cause accidents!
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Tish Farrell said:
More power to these lovely people who put spirit back in the man-made environment. Life-enhancers! And thank you for featuring them, Meg. And I love your term ‘screen dump’.
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morselsandscraps said:
I thought “screen dump”was a technical term. This series was a delight – and, at 10 minutes per episode, just within my attention span!
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Tish Farrell said:
I’m not up to speed on technical terms 🙂
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restlessjo said:
I’m with Jude (again! 🙂 ). Those eyes are magnificent. I’ll have to backtrack to look at some of the others. Nice to have a little bit of lazy time, Meg. I’m going to Harrogate Flower Show today. Haven’t been in years. It used to be set in picturesque Valley Gardens in the town centre but became too successful so they moved it to a showground on the outskirts. A bit too commercial but the blooms will be lovely and we’re meeting James and his lady afterwards for a meal. (it’s not far from Leeds 🙂 ) Thank heavens, he starts work on Monday! Happy weekend hugs! (no dancing? 🙂 )
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morselsandscraps said:
Pussyfooting more like. A beach of boulders which had me exercising super caution so I didn’t join my three closest males in the injuries. I look forward to joining you at the flower show. Who’s resting?
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morselsandscraps said:
No dancing. I did fall over. Does that qualify? The Flower Show was obviously spectacular, and work on Monday is excellent for your peace of mind. I really hope I see those carriages sometime.
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restlessjo said:
Oh no! No damage done? Yes those eyes are compelling xx
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Heyjude said:
The murals on the train are wonderful. What a great artist.
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morselsandscraps said:
The interactions with the locals were great too. The train driver hopped down and said “How do I get my face on one of these wagons?”, and a man in a wheelchair with a dog on his lap made reflective spot-on comments.
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Suzanne said:
It is hard to find art programs on tv now. Looks like you struck gold. Good street art is impressive and so imaginative.
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morselsandscraps said:
I’ve just bought a TV, the first one I’ve ever owned, and it’s still in its box four days later. A white elephant?
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funnymentalist61 said:
I think it was the year Mum had her stroke we had visited Tasmania and drove through Sheffield known for its murals on the walls of the town. Let me know if interested could post some somewhere. Sheffield was Flo Bjelke Petersens forte we did try some of her scones that day as well.
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morselsandscraps said:
I stumbled across Sheffield on the internet – yet another reason for returning to Tasmania. Flo in Tasmania? I thought she was a Queenslander.
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Sue said:
Oh, I do love it when you go on a gathering spree, Meg! And I love finding street art, haven’t seen all that much recently – wish I had had much more time in Havana….
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morselsandscraps said:
I like “gathering spree”. Maybe that’s what photography is as well, and blogging.
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Sue said:
😀😀
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