In the open air - en plein air, Exhibition Catalogue for Ron McBurnie

In the open air - En plein air Ron McBurnie

In the open air - En plein air Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts 25 May - 1 July 2012

This exhibition focuses on dual impressions of two very different landscape topographies, France and Australia, linked by a single vision.

Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts 482 Flinders Street | PO Box 2394, Townsville, QLD, 4810 Ph/ Fax: (07) 4772 7109 | admin@umbrella.org.au | www.umbrella.org.au Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm & Sunday 9am - 1pm UmbrellaStudio

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#InTheOpenAir

Throughout my career as a visual artist, I have always been interested in recording my life experiences through the images I make using painting, drawing, etching and artists books. In recent years, the outdoor works I have produced become an ongoing record of places of significance for me. They become a visual prompt, a way for me to better recall those places or moments. In particular, when I draw a place for a long period of time (ie several hours in one sitting), it becomes very familiar and I remember it better. As part of this ongoing process, an emotional commitment is made between the work, the place and me. The commitment involves time spent in observation of the specific site as well as a meditation on the mode of interpretation and translation to paper.

Front and back cover:

Rain clouds over Corde-sur-Ciel, 2009, ink and watercolour on paper, 23x31cm Page 1:

Coloured Morning, 2011, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm Page 2, Clockwise from top left:

Full moon in the valley, 2009 , ink on paper, 36x51cm Moonlight over Tonnac, 2009, ink on paper, 36x51cm Alayrac valley moon, 2009, ink on paper, 23x31cm

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The act of drawing en plein air, rather than working from images in the studio, reinforces this familiarity because of the physical nature of the experience. One can appreciate the direction in which a tree is leaning when a strong breeze is buffeting your drawing pad or the intensity of the colour on the branches when the midday sun is burning your skin. As well as the physical nature of the outdoor experience of working in landscape, drawing forces one to record as much information as possible in the allotted time. I take no photographic record of the place so any minor changes made in the studio are done from memory.

Page 3, clockwise from top left:

Study for Oberon Tree, 2010, ink and watercolour on paper, 46x61cm Ploughed valley in twilight, 2009, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm View of Mouzieys-Panens, 2009 ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm Page 4, clockwise from top left:

The Oberon tree, 2010, ink and watercolour on paper, 76x100cm

Fading afternoon Alayrac, ink and watercolour on paper, 46x61cm Approaching storm, Alayrac, 2011, ink and watercolour on paper, 46x61cm

The coast from Byfield, 2010, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm Return to Alayrac, 2011, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm

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When I first began to draw and paint from the small hamlet of Alayrac in France in 2009, I intended to work with thick paint and pastels as I had previously done in Australia, but the delicacy of the landscape suggested that watercolour with pen and ink would suit it much better. Each morning I would rise at 7am and paint the view from the stone seat at the back of the house where we stayed. Every morning the scene looked different and this surprised me. During this time I wanted to record changes in colour, intensity, light and seasons through the work. Each time I drew the view, I felt that the landscape and I had a better understanding of each other.

Since then I have continued to work with pen and ink and watercolour. I seek out locations which are challenging to draw and from which I can create a visual response. I engage with the world and these places by returning to them repeatedly until I have a visual understanding of them.

Clockwise from top left:

Into the sun, 2010, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm

Storm above Tonnac, 2009, ink and watercolour on paper, 23x31cm Pimpa and friend, Alayrac, 2009, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm

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The work in the exhibition is a selection of the en plein air paintings and drawings made on visits to different locations in Australia and France. On a few occasions during the process of making works for the exhibition, I was working on site with various colleagues including Robert Preston, Anneke Silver and Euan Macleod. Due to the ever-changing light on the landscape and focus on recording it accurately and as quickly as possible, very little was usually said until the end of the session when we discussed the work we had made. To work in the company of others who are also challenged and rewarded by working in the landscape is encouraging.

Clockwise from top left:

Oak Study 1, Alayrac, 2009, ink on paper, 23x31cm Oak Study 2, Alayrac, 2009, ink on paper, 23x31cm

New morning, Alayrac, 2009, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm Raintree landscape, Mundingburra, 2011, ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm

Tree in the rain, 2010, ink and watercolour on paper, 23x31cm Morning shadows toward Tonnac, 2009 ink and watercolour on paper, 36x51cm

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Umbrella Studio Contemporary Arts | 482 Flinders Street | PO Box 2394, Townsville, QLD, 4810 | Ph/ Fax: (07) 4772 7109 admin@umbrella.org.au | www.umbrella.org.au | Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm & Sunday 9am - 1pm

umbrella studio contemporary arts