THE 2008
JohnALeslie RT PRIZE
shiftinglandscapes FOCUSING ON THE NATURAL WORLD
THE JOHN LESLIE ART PRIZE John Leslie O.B.E has for many years been patron of the Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale. The John Leslie Art Prize recognises the great contribution and benefaction from John, a long time resident of Sale and supporter of the arts in Gippsland. His generous sponsorship of this prestigious prize attracts an amazing cross section of paintings from around Australia for visitors to the gallery to enjoy. The John Leslie Art Prize has always had a strong environmental theme. This year's title, Shifting Landscapes: Focusing on the Natural World produced an incredible response of 240 entries. In 2008 this $10,000 non-acquisitive painting prize aims to encourage and assist the winner in future endeavours. Previous winners of the prize include David Keeling in 2000, Vera Moller in 2002, Mark McCarthy in 2004 and Brigid Cole-Adams in 2006. From its beginning in 2000 to this year's exhibition, the John Leslie Art Prize succeeds in drawing greater attention to our natural world, and the important issues contained within. The Gippsland Art Gallery Society is proud to host this special event. Crystal Stubbs President Gippsland Art Gallery Society
COVER IMAGE: Brigid Cole-Adams Harrowed Earth (Detail) Winner 2006 John Leslie Art Prize
DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD The Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale, is proud to host the 2008 John Leslie Art Prize. This $10,000 nonacquisitorial prize for painting is the most significant art prize in South Eastern Victoria, made possible by the generous support of Mr John Leslie O.B.E. Patron of the Gippsland Art Gallery. This year's prize - 'Shifting Landscapes', based on the theme of land and the environment, has attracted over 240 entries from all over Australia. The selection panel of Rodney Forbes (Lecturer in Art at the Gippsland Centre for Art and Design at Monash University), Georgia Cribb (Director of the National Exhibition Touring Support, Victoria) and Charles McCubbin (Artist and Environmentalist) have worked hard to select 61 works from the very broad interpretations on the theme for the exhibition and judging. The exhibition proves to be one of the most popular amongst visitors to the Gallery with everyone having an opinion on what their favourite painting is. And so, this year's prize will for the first time, include a People's Choice Award. On behalf of the Gallery, I wish to extend my congratulations to the finalists of this year's prize. Anton Vardy Director Gippsland Art Gallery
1
THE FALL INTO UNDERSTANDING There's a saying amongst rock climbers that you don't really know you are climbing until you're falling. In that splitsecond threshold between the known and the unknown, between solid rock and falling through space, the climber's perception shifts. This sensory jolt transforms the body's awareness, redefining what was familiar through a momentary experience of its absolute opposite. The metaphysical notion of the fall, an experience of something so vast or dangerous that it inspires awe or veneration, was associated in the nineteenth century with the aesthetic concept of the sublime in the landscape paintings of Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich and J.M.W. Turner. Based on Edmund Burke's 'Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas on the Sublime and Beautiful' (1757), the source of the sublime was initially considered to be found in experiences of terror and pain rather than beauty. Subsequently through the influence of philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, this shifted towards our more contemporary understanding of the sublime as a profound elevation of the senses through the idea of transcendence and boundlessness. Many of the nineteenth century Romantic painters attempted to evoke a sense of the sublime and the overwhelming power of nature by painting on an enormous scale. Massive canvases depicting wild seas, thundering waterfalls and dark skies dwarfed the viewer in the artist's attempt to convey a 'terrible beauty'. The representation of the landscape in painting has evolved considerably over the past 200 years, encompassing scientific, industrial, agricultural, environmental and artistic developments as it has done so. However the drive to capture a sense of the transcendent, to impart a metaphysical understanding of the nature of humanity's place in the landscape, persists strongly through the practice of contemporary landscape painters. In contrast now though, the sense of the vastness and complexity of the landscape is often conveyed through details, reflecting our greater awareness of the immense complexity of geology, biology and ecosystems, as well as our understanding of their fragility. Strongly evident in the works selected for this year's John Leslie Art Prize is an interest in the intimate experience of the landscape, of the textures, colours and forms, rather than the sweeping vista. Through abstracted and impressionistic investigations of space, light and perspective, these works draw us into an unfamiliar zone, and by so doing, jolt us into a new understanding. The variety of painting styles and techniques present in the work of this year's finalists reflect a preference for the impressionistic, abstract and allegorical rather than literal representations. A sense of the drama and continuing cycle of life is represented in the abstracted debris of coloured pebbles, tiny insect tracks, twigs and worm castings beautifully rendered in Pamela Cheetham's River Bed, Fowler's Gap 2008. Representing another river landscape, the delicately layered colour and deft pencil marks of Gary Christian's Deep Gorge and Bird Song 2007 poetically evoke a sense of tranquillity, reflections and shimmering light pierced regularly by shrill bird calls.
2
Works such as Lesley Turnbull's Norfolk Island Pine, Centennial Park 2008 and Amanda van Gils' View from a speeding train 5 (Barcelona to Nice) 2008 capture half-seen impressions of light and movement, creating ambiguous and otherworldly spaces. Forms dissolve, placing viewers in a position of spatial uncertainty which, rather than representing the sublime, create an experience of it. Colour and form are the focus of many of the works. A hillside of rocks and grasses dappled by sunlight emerges from a blur of green, blue and brown brushstrokes in Robert Hollingworth's Wild Country Summer 2008. Lara Merrett's I feel the earth move 2007 brilliantly expresses a sense of the Earth's inherent energy and constant motion through intense colours and abstracted forms; organic pools of black, indigo, pale mauve and bright yellow seep and spread across one another. Contemporary environmental concerns are explored by many of the artists. In contrast to the landscape tradition which sought to express the grandeur and beauty of a vista, many depict the land as fragile and threatened, and the human presence in the landscape which was once either heroic or humble is now ugly, alien, wasteful and disrespectful. A shopping trolley, a potent metaphor for consumerism, lies discarded in Chelsea Gustafsson's Curiosity at the Drainage Reserve 2008. A pile of outdated monitors form a shabby monument to a throwaway culture in Stephan Pleban's Computers in Landscape I 2008. The fragmentation of ecosystems and the constant spread of the urban environment are issues taken up by a number of artists including Sue Jarvis, Dale Cox and Stephanie Haygarth. Concern for our water systems, pollution and the control wrought over natural processes are also recurring themes. These anxieties are balanced by several works which celebrate a sense of place and the richness of the everyday. The pleasure of a familiar park and of strolling among neatly formed trees and trimmed lawns is represented in Yvonne Boag's Park Evening 2008. Nina Ryan's Orchards 2008, Mia Schoen's Apollo Bay Cloud 2008 and Anna Mackrel's Rain on Smart's Hill 2008 are several examples that express a fondness for a picturesque view as seen from a favourite vantage point. It is the place looked forward to on a walk or a drive, the glimpse of a favourite coastline or the view across the countryside to distant hills on a regular journey that makes us slow down or pause to appreciate the experience, and in doing so, come to know ourselves better. The works within this year's John Leslie Art Prize vary greatly in style and subject, but all result from a sensitive observance of aspects of landscape and a desire to render those visible to us, the viewers. By letting go of our solid understanding of the landscape as we know it and entering into a momentary experience of the unfamiliar, these artists provide us with the opportunity to reconsider our understanding of the landscape and our relationship to it. Bryony Nainby September 2008
3
Faye Alexander Jenkins Against the Odds 13.2.08 - Sorry Day Acrylic on Canvas 61 x 91 cm
Greg Ades Daintree 2 Oil on Linen 92 x 137 cm 4
Rod Bax Elegy Oil, Metal Leaf on Canvas 75 x 50 cm
Yvonne Boag Park Evening Acrylic on Canvas 122 x 152 cm
Kerry Buckland-Lewis Constructed Flora Enamel & Acrylic on Canvas 100 x 125cm
Pamela Cheetham River Bed, Fowlers Gap Oil on Linen 96 x 150 cm 5
Gary Christian Deep Gorge and Bird Song Acrylic Oil & Pencil on Linen 122 x 167 cm
Dale Cox Tract IV (4) Acrylic on canvas 91 x 198 cm
Astrid Dahl Three out of Ten, the Murray Darling Oil on Canvas 77 x 340 cm 6
Mark Dober Requiem (Kinglake Landscape) Oil on Canvas 61 x 100 cm
Peggy Ditchburn Entitled to Flow Oil on Gesso 91 x 76 cm
Michelle Day To View Oil & Wax on Canvas 80 x 150 cm
7
Pamela Drewitt Smith Sands Early Morning Shadows Oil on Canvas 76 x 198 cm
Jeremy Elkington Across Time Oil on Canvas 85 x 135 cm 8
Richard Dunlop Monk by the Sea Oil on Board 30 x 180 cm
Kylie Elkington Awakening Oil on Board 65 x 125 cm
Kasia Fabijanska Port Phillip Bay II Oil on Board 119 x 210 cm
Annie Finkelde Wetland Jewels Oil on Canvas 110 x 110 cm 9
Nell Frysteen Wellspring Oil on Canvas 122 x 152 cm
John Gambardella Dead River Redgums (Murray River) Enamel Paint on Canvas 90 x 120 cm
Carolyn Goldberg Granite Town & Tracks Oil on Linen 127 x 224 cm 10
Chelsea Gustafsson Curiosity at the Drainage Reserve Oil on Canvas 55.5 x 91 cm
Janine Good Banksia Aura Acrylic & Pastel on Silver Board 100 x 57 cm
Anne Hastie Close to the Edge Acrylic & Ink on paper 71 x 91 cm 11
Stephanie Haygarth Undiscovered Country Watercolour & Acrylic on Paper 95 x 130 cm
Barbara Hodgson Remains Oils on Canvas 100 x 150 cm 12
Sue Jarvis In Process of Change Oil on Canvas (Four Panels) 137 x 137 cm
Jonathan Kimberley Not My Garden: Map of Unlandscape Acrylic, Charcoal on Linen 182 x 182 cm
Robert Hollingworth Wild Country Summer Acrylic on Canvas 122 x 168 cm 13
Anna Mackrell Rain on Smart's Hill Oil on Canvas 72 x 98 cm
Rosalind Lawson Kaithn Oil on Canvas 120 x 91 cm 14
Nadine Lineham The Water’s Edge Oil on Canvas 100 x 100 cm
Kerry Martin Elemental Oil on Linen 122 x 136 cm Aaron Martin Untitled Oil on Canvas 122 x 167 cm
Mandy Martin Wanderers in the Desert of the Real; Tanami Spinifex Fires Ochre, Pigment, Oil on Linen 180 x 270 cm 15
Sara McPherson Looking on the Bright Side Oil on Canvas 36 x 97 cm
Andrew Mezei Unimpeachable Pillars Oil on Linen 61 x 102 cm 16
Frank Mesaric Nothing Under the Sky Lives Twice Oil on Canvas 150 x 120 cm
Claudine Marzik Far North - Woodland Acrylic on Canvas 128 x 236 cm
Lara Merrett I Feel the Earth Move Synthetic Polymer Paint & Ink on Linen 183 x 167 cm
Jo Millen A Shadow of its Former Self Oil on Board 120 x 90 cm 17
Guy Morgan Windy Hill Oil on Canvas 61 x 92 cm
Annabel Nowlan Green Drought III Oxide & Mixed Media on Copper on Ply 84 x 117 cm
Adam Norton Terraforming Acrylic on Canvas 137 x 213 cm 18
Matthew Quick Pure Modesty Oil on Italian Linen 100 x 100 cm
Ottavio Otto Boron Skeletal-Wonthaggi Oil on Canvas 150 x 150 cm
Stephen Pleban Computers in Landscape I Oil & Wax on Canvas 212 x 167 cm 19
Georgina Read Empirical Empire Oil on Linen 95 x 196 cm
Mia Schoen Apollo Bay Cloud Oil & Thread on Linen 107 x 107 cm 20
Kate Shaw Visitant Acrylic & Resin on Board 120 x 270 cm
Stephen Spurrier Australian Pastoral #165 (and Origins)(Triptych) Acrylic on Canvas 45 x 140 cm
Nina Ryan Orchards Oil on Canvas 83 x 112 cm
Andrew Southall Is life Acrylic on Canvas 167 x 167 cm 21
Kynan Sutherland Red Knob Gold Mine Oil, Paint, Pencil on Canvas 102 x 133 cm
Geoff Tolchard Race Day - Albert Park Oil on Canvas 120 x 150 cm
Mary Tonkin After You, Kalorama Oil on Linen 42 x 91 cm 22
Paul Williams Constructed Landscape Oil on Board 55 x 75 cm
Lesley Turnbull Norfolk Island Pine Centennial Park Oil on Canvas 102 x 122 cm
Amanda Van Gils View From a Speeding Train 5 (Barcelona to Nice) Oil on Linen 51 x 61 cm 23
Chris Worfold Night & Day I Acrylic & Ink on Paper Collage 170 x 120 cm
Amy Wright Trifford Propagation Ink, Watercolour, Gouache, Graphite 91 x 88cm
24
THE 2008 JOHN LESLIE ART PRIZE Exhibition opened by: Associate Professor Robert Nelson Head of Department - Theory of Art & Design: Monash University Senior Art Critic, The Age Exhibition: 4 October to 16 November 2008 Winner announced: 3 October 2008 (post publishing of catalogue) Catalogue Published by the Gippsland Art Gallery Society Published: September 2008 Design: Julien Stannus - julienstannus@optusnet.com.au Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale Port of Sale Civic Centre 68-70 Foster Street, Sale, Victoria 3850 Australia Director: Anton Vardy Curator: Claire Watson www.wellington.vic.gov.au/gallery Acknowledgements The Gippsland Art Gallery Society wishes to thank the following individuals for their contribution in making this exhibition a success: Rodney Forbes, Georgia Cribb, Charles McCubbin, Associate Professor Robert Nelson, Bryony Nainby, Lesley Scott, Claire Watson, Anton Vardy and Julien Stannus.
ISBN 978-0-646-50181-9 Š 2008 This catalogue is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism, or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any other process without written permission. The Gippsland Art Gallery, Sale is principally funded by the Wellington Shire Council with assistance from the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria, a Division of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
25