MAIN AND FOYER GALLERIES

Tainted Landscapes

Michael Pospischil - Chris Fletcher - David LeMay

28 February to 5 April 2019

Tainted Landscapes is an art project involving three friends that began in 2012, when it became obvious that they held similar views about the environment and man’s mark on it, and thought it would be productive to explore this rich vein as a group.

LeMay, Pospischil and Fletcher all work from direct observation and on location, travelling and camping together, taking the time to generate immersive experiences. This working method presents challenges and constraints of its own, with results that can be anticipated but are oftentimes unexpected and surprising. The works impress forward in time as unrepeatable moments, untidy and improvised. Brought back into the studio they can be reflected upon and reworked, perhaps simply left or even abandoned. The Tainted Landscapes exhibition will attempt to frame and express this artistic immediacy and intimacy. 

"The impact of human activity on the natural environment is the subject for three local artists. Each artist is exploring different observations of landscapes under siege. Within a personal vision of nature, each considers the natural environment valuable while recognising people’s place within it and impact upon it. We mine and we undermine the environment with our relentless need to consume. Artists mine and undermine feelings and phenomenal experience, searching for a place within the fragility of this space ‐ observing and painting the landscape differently, connecting needs, beliefs, concerns and emotions."  Curator, Beth Jackson

Image: (TOP) Poisoned Waters Michael Pospischil (CENTRE) Camp Ground at Cranky Rock Chris Fletcher (BOTTOM) Acland David LeMay

ORANGE WALL GALLERY

Plein Air Park: Recreational enjoyment of light

Julie Purcell

10 January to 2 March 2019

Julie is a Queensland College of Art graduate with a bold, impressionistic style of painting. She created the works for this exhibition “en plein air” in Millar Vale Park in Maryvale. “En plein air” is a method of painting outside the studio in the open air popularized by the Impressionist artists of the late nineteenth century. It coincided with the introduction of readymade artist canvases and paint in tubes. It created opportunities for artists to capture people at leisure and the effects of light on the landscape at different times of the day.

Julie’s paintings are small as she developed a ritual of riding her bicycle to the park with her painting materials stowed in the bicycle basket. Spending time in the park helped her understand the joy of the park experience – relieving stress, observing nature and learning to enjoy the solitude.

She also started leaving her finished artworks in the park tucked into the hidden spaces on an old tractor. The public’s interaction with the artworks added a new dimension to Julie’s creative process starting conversations and revealing small appreciative interventions to the display.

A significant feature of Julie’s paintings is her unconventional framing technique.

“I am interested in finding ways to simultaneously highlight and cross the boundary between painting and object, this is an approach inspired by my interest in the ruptured boundaries of ceiling painting in the Baroque era where illusionary tromp l’oeil meets architecture and sculpture in what is described as a Bel Composto effect (beautiful composite).”