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Opening
at Marianne Newman Gallery on Friday 30 April will be "Characteristic
Views".
Geoffrey Adams and Lynne Sung explore the Australian landscape,
discovering its changing atmospheres from both personal and
historical perspectives and in distinct styles of painting and mixed
media. Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New
South Wales will give the opening address on Friday 7 May.
Practising
art for over 20 years, Geoffrey Adams is continually inspired by the
Riverina landscape where he spent his childhood in Coleambally. In
his most recent series of landscapes Adams captures the rolling hills
of the Riverina region with a looseness and a softness which reflects
his familiarity with the region while at the same time welcomes the
viewer into the landscape.
Adams'
quick and fluid watercolours also suggest this intimate personal
connection and he captures the colour and texture of the Riverina's
red dirt by incorporating the use of clay and earth pigments.
A
graduate of Sydney's National Art School with a major in painting,
Adams is fascinated with the exploration of materials and techniques,
pushing the boundary of the medium itself. Adams uses unconventional
methods and paints with knives and sticks as well as brushes to
produce unusual and distinctive effects when combined with his
characteristic coloured drips and spatter.
"I
am devoting more of my time and energy to the processes of
underpainting and using different coloured washes and glazes to
represent the moods of the landscape," Adams explains. Adams is
able to replicate the changing moods of the landscape using this
technique, along with his choice of colour palettes, to place the
images in time, from the dry heat of summer or the pink hues of dawn
to the crispness of winter.
Lynne
Sung's works revolve around her interest in how perceptions of the
landscape are shaped through personal experience and written
documentation of the land, past and present, fictional and factual.
Intrigued by words, Sung incorporates writing or text like marks in
her uniquely layered works.
Watkin
Tench travelled to Australia with the First Fleet and recorded his
personal observations of the landscape in his diary. Inspired by his
writings Sung speaks of Tench as, "a young man full of enthusiasm
for the journey and a positive approach to the new settlement." She
created direct responses to these writings and then further developed
the idea to produce mixed media works that describe vaguely familiar
landscapes. These textured works are built up underneath the distant
horizon, overlaying maps, text, thread and translucent fabrics to
create a tactile interpretation of this historical diary. Through
these materials emerge the shapes of distant hills, dry grass, and
beach.
Lynne
Sung is a founding member of the 6+ Group and practices from her
Lilyfield studio. After a career as a successful education writer
Sung returned to study Fine Arts and her art soon reached semi final
level of the TAFE national drawing prize. She has been a finalist in
numerous art competitions in both Sydney and Melbourne and in 2009
Sung won the Works on Paper Prize at the Glebe Art Show.
Characteristic
Views
is on show at Marianne
Newman Gallery, 1 Albany Street, Crows Nest from 30
April - 29 May 2010. Gallery
Hours:
Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 5pm
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