Gallery Works invites you to marvel the works of Tamborine Mountain’s talented life drawing artists
Artists across the Scenic Rim opened their work studios to the public over the weekend for May’s Open Studios of the Scenic Rim festival.
Many of the artists involved in the Gallery Works ‘Six Mountain Artists’ exhibition had spent weeks busily preparing for Open Studios thus Gallery Works Director, Richard Roper, has decided to extend the current exhibition until Sunday 9, July.
The six well-known local artists are Maki Horanai, Monique Quarantini, Louise Grove-Wiechers, Marianne Halpin, Mike Taylor and Gallery Director Richard Roper.
These six artists all attend regular life drawing sessions every Tuesday at the Creative Arts Centre and share their creative ideas and techniques so their work is continually evolving – a testament that tuition can improve the skills of even the most accomplished artists.
“The six artists reflect the multicultural aesthetic of Tamborine Mountain – Maki is Japanese born, Marianne is from Finland, Louise is South African born, Mike is Californian, Monique married an Italian and I am the boring Australian who was born on the Darling River,” said Richard.
Richard has always been passionate about owning and operating a regional gallery which is solely devoted to promoting and supporting local artists.
After travelling to the mountain with his family almost a decade ago, Richard said he “fell in love with the natural beauty of the place” and decided to make Tamborine Mountain his home three years ago.
In early 2011, Richard established Gallery Works and stood by as his dream became a reality.
“We have revolutionised the way the Gallery functions by refreshing the works every couple of months and allowing each artist to have their own space and rotate them across the walls in an anti-clockwise direction,” said Richard.
The Gallery has also allocated space to new, emerging and established artists to allow the Gallery to continually present a well-crafted exhibition program.
Maki Horanai, Mixed Media
Maki Horanai is a well-known mountain artist with a number her of solo painting exhibitions presented by the Marks and Gardener Gallery. Maki’s paintings have long been the feature of Marks and Gardener but her drawings will be exhibited at Gallery Works.
Artist Statement
“My Mountain spirit, silently gliding amidst the trees, seeking solace.”
Monique Quarantini, Ceramics and Drawings
Monique Quarantini is an established ceramist however exhibits a range of sensual and emotional interpretations of the human body with her highly disciplined drawing style. Her adept love of poetry cascades down the borders of her works with refined elegance.
Artist Statement
“My love of ceramics has taken me on a 20 year journey to here with my “Vessels of Love”. I have a burning passion for life drawing. I love the process of drawing on the songlines of the human body, and I become lost in the rhythms of forms and entranced by the freedom of expression. I am inspired by the written and spoken word as reflected in this anonymous eighteenth century poem: ‘Our Bodies and our Souls of Fire, Tos’t by a Tempest of Desire, ‘Til with utmost Fury Driven, Down at Once we Sink to Heaven’.”
Louise Grove-Wiechers, Paintings Drawings and Prints
Louise Grove-Wiechers exhibits a range of still life pieces which are composed through an ancient Dutch tradition where the subject is painted through a build-up and layering of colour. Tremendous detail is given to the direction and angle of natural light which brings forth an unexpected realism.
Artist Statement
“My art production is a synthesis of my perceptions of the physical world. I endeavour to capture the beauty of the everyday experience. I want to open the viewers’ eyes to the sensual harmony of ordinary things. My goal is to convey the serenity of the moment.”
Marianne Halpin, Figurative Drawings and Paintings
Marianne Halpin’s space is a composition of drawn portraits which exhibit the character and fragility of her subjects. She has also created two larger paintings in which smaller portraits come together to create large composite canvases.
Artist Statement
“Drawing has become more important as an art form in its own right in recent years. Since I always seem to have a mark-making implement in my hand (pencil, charcoal, brush, biro..), it seemed appropriate to display some of my life drawings as well as ink paintings in this exhibition.”
Mike Taylor, Sculpture and Drawings
Best known as the maker of leather masks, Mike Taylor, exhibits a range of sgrafitto drawings of the Arabian horse. Mike has isolated individual characteristics of the Arabian breed and injected them into his work with superb artistic skill.
Artist Statement
“The intent of this work is to find a way of making artwork that is neither painting, nor drawing, nor sculpture, but is somehow all of them.”
Richard Roper, Works on Paper
Richard Roper’s delivers a range of individual masterpieces which are finely executed examples of his water colour and ink speciality. His work has an eerie transparency which he describes as “micro gardeners messing around with stem cells and creating new organisms”.
Artist Statement
“I was born at Wentworth New South Wales at the junction of the Murray and Darling Rivers. My formative years spent on the river banks brought me into contact with aboriginal children and their art which included drawing in wet clay.”
“In recent years I have been drawn to the use of watercolour and ink using a “wet on wet” technique, predominantly using the earthy colours that I was surrounded by in childhood. My childhood experience of seeing the First Australians draw in wet clay has influenced my choice of medium, colour and organic style. I like to explore the interface between art and science to create imaginative visual images.”
Gallery Works is open Thursday to Monday from 11am to 4pm however will be closed for a winter break from Monday 28th May. The gallery will re-open on Thursday 7th June.