Liz Ashburn and Camille Masson-Talansier are two very distinctive artists currently showing at Marianne Newman Gallery. In Another Reality Ashburn's exquisitely decorated, miniature paintings comment on the reality of life in a war ravaged Iraq. In contrast, Masson-Talansier's My Lockhart Paintings reveals a transition in her art from her life travelling between France and Australia and her new "life on the edge" in far North Queensland.

Liz Ashburn's outrage and concern about the destruction of world heritage buildings and the looting of cultural institutions in the Middle East caused her to study Islamic miniature painting. The rich colours and intricate compositions of this traditional style of painting are in contrast to the media images of the war and realities of everyday life in Iraq. However Ashburn does not only visualise the ugliness and horrors but also shows a positive by-product of the war, the saving of the country's unique marshes which had been destroyed by Suddam Hussein.

Works from this series has toured regional galleries but this is the first time they are exhibited in a commercial gallery. A number of paintings in the series have been collected by the Art Gallery of Tasmania and the Gallery of the Australian War Museum.

Liz Ashburn, art academic, artist, writer and activist was awarded the Order of Australia in 2007 for service to the visual arts and to the community.

Camille Masson-Talansier was born in Indonesia and arrived in Sydney 3 years later. She spent the next 25 years in Australia and after 15 years in France she returned earlier this year and took up the position of Art Advisor for the Lockhart River Artgang in far north Queensland.

Since her formative years Masson-Talansier has been passionate about Paleo-Christian art. Her interest in ancient civilisations and her extensive travels should have led her to be a historian or ethnologist but under the tutorage of Lloyd Rees she became an artist.

Spirituality and nature are recurrent themes in Masson-Talansier's work and over the years her art has progressed from a decorative, exterior vision to an internal state of the soul and mind.

This exhibition reveals a transition from one side of the world to another, from the intense graphic works with a strong botanical-like quality to vibrant canvases with an explosion of the senses, as experienced in the wild new life in far North Queensland. Masson-Talansier describes her new life as a "life always on the edge of itself, of the great Australian land-mass, of survival, of burning grass and broken turtles, of giant rocks and too much green."

Another Reality and My Lockhart Paintings will be opened by Joanna Mendelssohn, Associate Professor, College of Fine Arts, University of NSW on Wednesday 7th November 6-8pm and will be on display until the 24th November.
Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5.30 pm