Richard Wastell
New Paintings and Drawings from the Tasmanian High Country
Richard Wastell New Paintings and Drawings from the Tasmanian High Country
King Street Gallery on William
10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday 177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia T: 61 2 9360 9727 art@kingstreetgallery.com www.kingstreetgallery.com.au
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Cycles of Life at the Skittleballs 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 92x77cm
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Cushion Plant, Skullbone Plains 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 92x77cm
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High Country State of Mind The new paintings and drawings in this exhibition were inspired by the High Country landscapes of Tasmania. The largely natural environment of alpine and sub-alpine ice-gouged mountains, lakes, rivers, forest, scrub and grassland plains covers the state’s central plateau, from the country townships of Bothwell in the South and Campbell Town in the East to Deloraine in the North and the iconic Cradle Mountain/Lake St Clair National Park in the West. I have been returning to this area of Tasmania since late childhood, when, aged 11 or so, my family started taking their camping and fishing holidays at Lake Sorell, near Interlaken. I vividly recall those first encounters with the High Country bush. To a kid who grew up on the dry, sandy beaches south-east of Hobart, it seemed like a magical wonderland. Damp and boggy, every available surface was encrusted with the spotting of lichens and moss and brimming with an intensity of deep, rich colour, varnished by frost, rain and ice. Nothing in nature looks, nor smells nor feels so good to me, now as then, as the High Country after rain. Simple pleasures like watching a flight of Black Swans cross silently over a lake, enjoying the smell of Snowgum leaf- litter after rain or the call of Black Currawongs, will keep me returning to the high-country. I find everything in such moments, peace, joy, beauty, wonder, mystery and an increasingly necessary refuge from the daily noise and anxieties of contemporary urban life. If I am lucky, time will become still and the world and my place in it make a little more sense. I have attempted to make the paintings and drawings in this exhibition emblematic of these emotions, which I call my High Country state of mind. Richard Wastell February 2015
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Grasslands into Mt King William 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 152x122cm
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Lichens and Lagoon turning to Evening 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 92x77cm
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Boulder Field, Skullbone Plains 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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Snowfall King William Range 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 152x122cm
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Lichen Patterns upon Ice-Age Granite 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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Skittleball and Satellite 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 41x41cm
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The Elements 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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Snowfall 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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On Skittleball Hill 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 41x41cm
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Black Swans in Flight 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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Night Fishing with Wattle Grubs 2015 Charcoal on paper 56x38cm
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Black Swan Nest, Lagoon of Islands 2015 Charcoal on paper 56x38cm
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The Black Swan Lake Sorell 2015 Charcoal on paper 56x38cm
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High Country Lagoon 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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Edge of the Buttongrass 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 92x77cm
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Lizard Red Studio 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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The Quiet Lagoon 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 51x46cm
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In a Green Mind 2015 Oil, oil stick, acrylic & pumice on linen 67x46cm
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Richard Wastell Richard Wastell Born 1974 Hobart, Tasmania Studies and Work 2002- Full-time Artist 2001-05 Studio, Letitia St Studios, Hobart 1997 Artists Residency, Lake St Clair/Cradle Mountain National Park 1996 Bachelor of Fine Arts (1st class Honours) University of Tasmania Solo Exhibitions 2015 New Paintings and Drawings from the Tasmanian High country King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, NSW 2014 High country-Skittleballs to Skullbone Plains Bett Gallery, Hobart, Tas 2011 She-oak and River Patterns King Street Gallery on William, Sydney, NSW 2010 Woodwork Bett Gallery 2009 Richard Wastell King Street Gallery on William 2008 With shells and sheoaks Bett Gallery at Melbourne Art Fair, Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Vic 2007 Whaler’s Camp Bett Gallery at Depot Gallery, Sydney 2006 We are making a new world Bett Gallery at 45 Downstairs Gallery, Melbourne 2005 Not far from here Devonport Regional Gallery, Devonport, TAS Not far from here Bett Gallery Hobart 2004 World that I love Bett Gallery at Depot Gallery 2002 Fires Bett Gallery 1999 Vision machine Bett Gallery 1998 Enigmas & double visions Bett Gallery Group Exhibitions [selected] 2014 The Skullbone Experiment QVMAG, Launceston, Tas and COFA Galleries, Sydney Drawings King Street Gallery on William, Sydney 2013 Sea, Sawtooth ARI, Launceston, TAS 2012 New Art from Tasmania [curated by Dr Peter Hill] James Makin Gallery, Melbourne Life, Bett Gallery, Hobart, TAS New Art from Tasmania, James Makin Gallery, Melbourne, VIC The Esk Collection Academy Gallery, UTAS, Launceston, TAS 2011 Hawksbury One Citizen Collectors Newcastle Regional Gallery, NSW Work from the Holmes a Court Collection, Holmes a Court Gallery, Perth, WA 25 years-an unfolding journey, Bett Gallery, Hobart Tattersalls Art Prize, Tattersalls Club, Brisbane, QLD 2010 Primed Academy Gallery, UTAS Green Plimsoll Gallery, UTAS, Hobart City of Hobart Art Prize Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart, TAS Christmas Show King Street Gallery on William, Sydney 2009 Four Tasmanian Painters – Burns, Keeling, Wastell & Wolfhagen, Bett Gallery Hobart & Holmes à Court Gallery Perth, WA 2008 The view from here Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne Liminal Carnegie Gallery, Hobart and CAST Touring TAS 2007 From an Island South Devonport Regional Gallery and Asialink touring TAS and Asia 2006 Contemporary Aspects of Tasmanian Art QVMAG, Launceston The Esk Collection TWDC, Launceston 2005 Rhapsody 21C Academy Gallery, UTAS, Launceston Letitia St Studios Plimsoll Gallery, UTAS, Hobart Artists’ artist Axia Modern Art, Melbourne
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Commissions & Awards 2005 Devonport Regional Gallery, commissioned Exhibition 2000 Art for Public Buildings Scheme, commissioned project 1997 Arts Tasmania, Emerging Artist Wilderness Residency program, Lake St Clair, TAS 1992 Tasmanian H.S.C. Art Award Collections Artbank, Sydney Island Collection, Hobart Tasmania BHP Billiton, Sydney Key Pharmaceuticals Collection, Sydney Burnie Regional Gallery, Tasmania Macquarie Bank, Sydney Derwent Collection 2, Hobart Parliament House, Canberra Devonport Regional Gallery, Tasmania RACV, Melbourne, Victoria Esk Collection, Launceston, Tasmania RACV, Melbourne, Victoria Hawkesbury One: Citizen Collectors, Sydney Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart Holmes a Court Collection, Perth, Western Australia Westmead Hospital Childrens Hospital Sydney Selected Bibliography [selected] 2014 Deeth, Jane: ‘The Skullbone Experiment, A Paradigm of Art and Nature,’ Artlink Vol 34 No 4, June Allen, Christopher: ‘Encounters with Nature,’ The Australian, Aug 16 ABC Television, Skullbone Plains, ABC Arts Documentary, Broadcast: Oct 28 2012 McDonald, John: ‘Beyond the Pale,’ Spectrum, SMH, Jan 21-22, pp20-21 2009 Stewart, Jane: ‘Jewel; Richard Wastell’ Radio National Artworks, Feb 22 Timms, Peter, Catalogue essay, King Street Gallery, NSW Timms, Peter, Four Tasmanian Painters, Holmes a Court gallery, WA 2008 Boyce, James: ‘Journeying Home’ catalogue essay, Bett Gallery, Melbourne Art Fair Strickland, Katrina: ‘Collectors board the red dot express’ Financial Review, July 19 Timms, Peter: ‘Gatecrashing the Sublime’ Artlink, Vol 28 No 2 2007 Collection, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Hansen, David: ‘Not all of this world’ cat. essay, Bett Gallery, Depot Gallery, Sydney, Oct Denholm, Michael: ‘Beauty and Catastrophe’ Craft Arts International, Issue 70 Kelly, Sean: ‘From an Island South’ Review, Artlink Vol 27 No 2 2006 Haynes, Roslynn, D: ‘Tasmanian Visions’ Polymath Press Makin, Jeff: ‘Visual Art 2006’ Sun Herald, Dec 27 Stewart, Jane: ‘From an Island South’ catalogue essay, Sept Smith, Amanda with Hay, Pete and Bonyhady, Tim: ‘Deep End’ ABC Radio National, Aug 2 Hansen, David: ‘Sightlines’ The Age, 28 July Flanagan, Martin: ‘The sombre dignity of clear-felled native forests’ The Age, July 25 Makin, Jeff: ‘Critic’s Choice’ Sun Herald, July 24 Flanagan, Richard: ‘Love Walks Naked’ Catalogue essay, Bett Gallery at 45 downstairs, July Bevilacqua, Simon: ‘Intense work in felled forests’ Sunday Tasmanian, 2 July 2005 Hill, Peter: ‘The Return of Painting’ The Age, 24 August Downes, Briony: ‘Not far from here’ Review, Artlink, Vol 25 No 2 Hay, Peter: ‘Not far from here’ catalogue essay, Devonport Regional Gallery, January Rankin-Reid, Jane: ‘Richard Wastell’ Art Collector, January-March
Full CV available on: kingstreetgallery.com.au
Photography: Jack Bett Design: Sam Woods Text: Richard Wastell
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King Street Gallery on William
10am – 6pm Tuesday – Saturday 177 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010 Australia T: 61 2 9360 9727 art@kingstreetgallery.com www.kingstreetgallery.com.au Directors: Robert Linnegar and Randi Linnegar
Member of the Australian Commercial Galleries Assocation Registered Valuer with the Australian Government Taxations Incentives for the Arts Scheme Published by King Street Studios P/L 2015 ISBN: 98-0-9875540-6-5