Art & Arcitecture in the Tropics catalogue

“Saints Sanctuary”

“Hill House”

“Beach House”

SALLY GRATTIDGE Watercolour on Paper (under glass) Despite having no formal art training, Sally has been a practising painter since leaving school. She has been a member of painting groups in both England and Australia for many years participating in outdoor sketching, life drawing, and murals. She is an accomplished watercolourist and oil painter and has received prizes and commendations for her work. In 2010, one of Sally’s works, “Endless Struggle” was chosen for the cover of a school text book. She is a long term member of the Townsville Watercolour Group, painting with members weekly.

RUTH HEINER Oil on Canvas Ruth was born in the small south Queensland town of Goomeri, but has lived in North Queensland for most of her life. She has been painting professionally for approximately 30 years and has earned a reputation as one of Queensland’s leading artists. Her paintings have an earthy quality which have commanded the attention of Australians and overseas collectors alike. The distinctive lifestyle and spectacular scenery Australians enjoy every day is her favourite subject. She has had various corporate commissions and is also the winner of numerous prizes.

VAL CLAUSSEN Watercolour on Paper (under glass) Born in Ayr, Queensland, Val is a self-taught artist who works in watercolour, oils, acrylic and pastels, with watercolour being her preferred medium. She has exhibited in the Annual Burdekin Art Awards for the past 40 years, the Townsville Watercolour Group Exhibition annually, as well as other exhibitions in Queensland. She has been awarded many first prizes including multiple first awards in Watercolour, Oil and Pastel paintings at the Burdekin Art Society Water Festival Exhibition the latest being the 2012 Watercolour Award. Her paintings are held in private collections in Australia, USA, Britain, Norway, Canada and James Cook University Art Collection.

“Fraternity House” by Ron McBurnie, Sepia Ink & Watercolour Wash on Paper (under glass)

ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN Friday 4 July 2014 Sunday 10 August 2014 THE TROPICS

“Radio Ga Ga” by Carole Howlett, Pastel on Paper (under glass)

Umbrella Studio contemporary arts | 482 Flinders Street, Townsville | (07) 4772 7109 www.umbrella.org.au office@umbrella.org.au | Open: Mon-Fri 9am-5pm & Sun 9am-1pm Facebook & Twitter: UmbrellaStudio “Treasure House” by Melanie (Mel) Williams, Acrylic on Canvas (Island Frame)

Troppo Architects Queensland | 7 Woolcock Street, Townsville (07) 4772 4251 www.troppoarchitects. com Open Mon-Fri 9am-5pm

Umbrella Studio acknowledges the financial support of: The Queensland Government through Arts Queensland, which is part of th e Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts, the Commonwealth Government through the Australia Cou ncil, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian, State and Territ ory Governments.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE TROPICS

Selected Artists in the Exhibition

Combining the architectural designs of North Queensland Architect Terry O’Toole and the creative talent of various North Queensland artists, Art and Architecture in the Tropics, explores the collaboration of Architecture and Art, with an exhibition featuring creative works that look at Terry’s unique designs through the eyes of celebrated, local Queensland artists such as Anneke Silver, Ron McBurnie, Carole Howlett, Robert Burton, Jan Hynes, Mel Williams and many more…

In all his work, Terry has sought to design buildings where the form of the building reflects its function.

He believes that architecture should have a regional context and be considered a “…figurative language – a symbolic three-dimensional hieroglyphic, in which meaning and communication is achieved by association.” (pg xii, Metaphor, Architecture & Alvar Aalto).

Not wanting to produce Architecture in the modern “international” style that is devoid of “…the contribution [of] climate, environment and meaning (metaphor) in architectural design conception and secular perception.” (pg xii, Metaphor, Architecture & Alvar Aalto), Terry has found inspiration in everyday objects such as corrugated iron, the Celtic Cross, Wurlitzer juke boxes, Petrol bowsers and Pinball machines to name but a few.

“Hidden Goddess”

“Loreto Lite”

Dr Anneke Silver’s “iconic” commissions of sculptural wall hangings express the audiovisual metaphors that inspired a local television studio “The Idiot Box” and a regional radio station, “Radio Ga Ga”.

Both designs inspired by vintage Art Deco radios and the now obsolete analogue TV’s.

On the other hand, Ron McBurnie has exploited his skills with pen and ink augmented by a watercolour wash to produce his artistic interpretations of several of Terry’s multi-residential commissions including the Loreto Nursing Home: “Loreto Lite” and James Cook University’s “Saints” Residential College, the “Frat House”. As well as Ron’s “cyclonic” vision of the workings within an Architect’s office.

“Gaelforce House”

A favourite of Terry’s, artist Carole Howlett, has produced a suite of colourful artistic renderings of many of his commercial designs. Examples of Carole’s work include the Tumbetin Lodge Tea Rooms: “Palm Eatum” a relocated and restored historic Queensland school house at the Townsville Palmetum, as well as pastel renderings of the Townsville Podiatry Centre: “Trampled Underfoot”, artworks that express these various buildings in a vibrant pastel medium.

Robert Burton, a well known local Artist predominantly specialising in abstract ceramic sculptures of Australia’s unique fauna, has created sculptural wall reliefs of some of Terry’s specialized architectural projects, as well as abstract oil on canvas artist interpretations of an orthodontic surgery: “Tooth and Nail(ed)” and adjacent legal offices entitled “Lawyers, Guns and Money”.

CAROLE HOWLETT Pastel on Paper (under glass) Carole draws inspiration from works of the past masters from Monet’s limited use of brushwork, Cezanne’s balanced and structured compositions to Degas’ powerful use of line and bold, bright colour combinations. In her work Carole tries to capture beneath the surface of a subject while making every mark count. She favours pastel, acrylic, charcoal and pencil mediums. Portraying buildings for Terry has provided her with a different approach - a more disciplined procedure, sometimes with a personal, humorous slant thrown in and where she has tried to keep them as true as she can but with the right amount of emphasis where needed.

“Lawyers, Guns & Money”

“Feet First”

Renowned watercolour artist, Sally Grattidge, was responsible for capturing in an abstract “innocent” form buildings such as the Arcadian Surf Lifesaving Club on the Strand: “Light House” and the Channel Ten’s Television Studios in Cairns: “Spaceframed”.

In addition, many other local artists such as Val Claussen and Sylvia Hewett have also included singular examples of their works in the exhibition exploiting media including oils, acrylics, watercolours and pastels.

RON McBURNIE Pen and Ink Watercolour (under glass) Ron McBurnie is a practicing artist and lecturer who lives in Townsville. Although his work relates strongly to the tropical environment of North Queensland, it also draws its inspiration from an earlier tradition of British and European printmaking and painting. Ron has an extensive exhibiting history and received numerous awards and grants, and his work is represented in many Australian Regional gallery collections, most major Australian State galleries and the National Gallery of Australia.

ROBERT BURTON Oil on Canvas Robert loves the crafts, especially ceramic sculpture and all the processes involved: drawing, painting, glazing and firing the kilns. He has been involved in nearly 80 exhibitions, mixed and oneman shows. He featured in “Out of the North” the first touring exhibition of pottery from North Queensland to visit every major Regional Gallery on the east coast of Australia.

In her artistic interpretation of Terry and his wife Mary’s many relocation and restoration projects of the traditional Townsville “Queenslander” house, contemporary surrealist artist Jan Hynes prefers a medium of acrylic on canvas to bring to life her creative imaginings.

Magnetic Island Artist Melanie (Mel) Williams, known for capturing the unique flora and fauna of the Island, was commissioned to produce acrylic on canvas interpretations of Terry’s own Island Residence “The Creek House” as well as a holiday home at Nobby Headland: the “Boulder House”. Whilst on Townwsville’s mainland Mel has painted a Saunders Beach residence “Beach House”, and a multi-level family home in Pimlico: “Lake House”.

DR. ANNEKE SILVER Iconic Painted Timber Wall Sculpture Dr Anneke Silver is a prominent and well established Queensland artist with more than 30 solo shows, and countless group, invitation and touring shows to her name in Australia as well as America, Europe and Fiji. She has painted for as long as she can remember, but received formal art training in Amsterdam and Brisbane and gained her PhD at James Cook University in Townsville.

Her work is widely represented in Australian Galleries, as well as in private and corporate collections in Australia, Europe and USA. She has also created numerous public art works in Queensland and Craftsman House have published a book about her.

“Creek House”

JAN HYNES Acrylic on Canvas (unframed wrap around edge) Jan has exhibited extensively with 13 individual exhibitions and numerous group exhibitions in Townsville, Brisbane and Sydney, as well as participation in a joint exhibition in Townsville and a collaborative exhibition in Brisbane. She has been commissioned to provide artwork for the Flinders Street East Redevelopment, the Museum of Tropical Queensland as well as numerous private commissions including works for Terry O’Toole. Jan has received many prizes, awards and commendations for her work. In 2011 she was Artist-in-Residence at Mt Maria College Mitchelton, Enoggera.

MELANIE (MEL) WILLIAMS Acrylic on Canvas (Island Frame) Predominantly self-taught, Mel began showing her work in group exhibitions with the Magnetic Island Arts Co-operative during 2004 and 2005. Her first solo exhibition was held at "Barefoot: Art, Food, Wine" on Horseshoe Bay in 2006. Her pieces have also been shown in Perc Tucker Regional Gallery, Umbrella Studio, and Orpheus Island Resort. Mel prefers to build images in acrylic paint on canvas and works with vivid colour, light, crisp lines and attention to detail. Paintings often tend towards the whimsical, and involve layering, print-making and textural components with iconographic tropical imagery featuring heavily.