2015 - A List

A collage of watercolours from the Pecolator Exhibition

Summer 

• New Years Eve at Coolum Beach - sketching
• 4th January - my first visit to Sydney - at the Museum of Contemporary Art seeing Chuck Close was a highlight; meeting Liz Steel and the Sydney urban sketchers  IRL was another.
• Aspire Gallery - Petit Pieces Exhibition
• Brisbane Collective - my sketch in print!
• Facebook Art Challenge

Autumn 

• Discovered Sktchy app
• Deep Ripple selected as a finalist for the Moreton Bay Regional Art Award
• Pond Reflections selected for the Lethbridge 10,000
• Still selected for the Rotary Art Spectacular at Waterfront Place - Watching and Rocks 24th December 2014 selected for the online exhibition - and Watching found a new home.
• Deep Ripple selected as a finalist for the Moreton Bay Regional Art Award

Winter

• Pond Reflections selected for the Lethbridge 10,000 and Paperbark for the online exhibition. 
• A Gold Coast escape - a few days sketching
• Holiday workshops - The popular Introduction to Oils and a Painting Bootcamp

Spring

• A week away in Noosa and a Cedar Pocket - more sketching
• Nundah Village Art Exhibtion - 4 paintings on show
• cARTwheel Collabortative exhibition at Percolator Gallery with three artist friends, and quite a few paintings found new homes...
• Miniatures and ink drawings at The Good Hatt Paddington Antique Centre
• Queensland State Library - teaching at a workshop for Peace.

Summer

• 10th December - An Anniversary - five wonderful years in Brisbane
• Still busy with Sktchy
• a few watercolour commissions
• And we've rolled around to the beginning and it's summer holidays again!
• Happy New Year to all of you - stay safe - stay creative.

I've added some links (in pink!) so you can re-visit my year.

Visiting the Art Galleries - APT 8

Last week the first day of the holidays started with a visit to the dentist my grandchildren. When the children were asked what they were going to do afterwards they said "We're going to the Art Gallery". The dentist's reply made me sad. He said he had never been to an art gallery - ever. I realised that for many people an art gallery is something completely outside their experience.

One of the things that I love about living in Brisbane is that the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art - QuaGoma have such a creative approach to exhibitions. There's always something magical going on, and always something that both children and adults will love. Over the summer holidays there's always a biggie with lots to enjoy for all ages. This summer it's the Asia Pacific Triennial 8.

On the drive to the gallery the children remembered how much they enjoyed some previous exhibitions. - this is a link to a post about these.
I was asked - “Are we going to see the spotty room? (Yayoi Kusama's The Obliteration Room here a white room was transformed with hundreds of coloured spots) Or maybe it’s the Sugar room?" (We miss you magic land 2011 - a fairy tale world created with sugar crystals). 

We would just have to see what was in store for us; perhaps today's visit will be as memorable.

                             Mandala of Flowers - an installation by Choi Jeong Hwa

The Mandala of Flowers is an installation by Choi Jeong Hwa. Viewed from the upper level one is transported into a different world. Down below a carpeted circle is covered with hundreds of coloured discs of different sizes.

A riot of Colour

Wait - discs? Lids - these are all just lids, different sizes of plastic lids - so simple but how the space is transformed. Children are encouraged to create mandala-like shapes with the coloured shapes.

Playing with Shadows

We only read the instructions as we were leaving so didn't keep to the suggestion to make a mandala but it didn't matter. The children had fun and spent ages creating a Christmas tree and a reindeer from the coloured lids. It was surprising to realise how long they were busy - my photos show the finished creations 40 minutes later. 

 

We wandered through the other exhibits making our way to GOMA and lunch. The Long Gallery has an installation that is both sculpture and sound effects. Surprised kids climbing on the sleeper structure were greeted with booming sounds - such fun. 

Everyday Whispers in the GOMA River Room has a booth where they whispered wishes to be added to the secret sound cloud. The collected wishes are played through a bank of speakers suspended from the ceiling. As you walk underneath the wishes float down.

There's so much to see that I'll definitely be back for another visit or two. APT kids have at least a dozen different activities - more than one day could easily be spent here. There's much for adults to enjoy as well. It's an ideal place to escape the heat of the Brisbane summer. You might just have a struggle to find parking so coming by bus or train is recommended. The exhibition is on until April and it's free. 

cARTwheel Collaborative exhibits at Percolator Gallery, Paddington, Brisbane

Four artists, members of cARTwheel Collaborative Janine Whitling, Giovanna Scott, Vicki Donaldson and I will be exhibiting at Percolator Gallery in Paddington from Wednesday 11th November to Sunday 15th November 2015.

As always, there will be a wide variety of exciting work on display. It's a good time to find some wonderful gifts for Christmas. 

The work I will be showing will be a selection of recent paintings - some large and medium-sized landscape paintings with the themes of ponds, reflections and trees.

In addition there will be some small framed watercolours that will make ideal gifts. After working in oils for most of this last year, I'm enjoying painting these still life subjects in watercolour and loving the smaller, more intimate format.

We will hang the exhibition on Tuesday 10th so  the exhibition will be open from Wednesday.
It will run until Sunday 15th November. Opening hours are 10.00am - 6.00pm Wednesday to Friday; 9.00am - 4.00pm Saturday and Sunday.

If you would like to chat to me about the exhibition I will be in the gallery for most of the day on Wednesday 11th November. 

We'd love you to join us on Friday 13th at 6.00pm for drinks and nibbles. 

In the meantime, and keeping it real, here's what my studio looks like today! 

Opening Night at Percolator Gallery

There was a bumper crowd at Percolator Gallery for the opening of cARTwheel Collaborative's exhibition. It was wonderful to have so much support for our work.

To view all the paintings I have on the show please go to this page Painting's at Percolator Gallery 

Exhibition View - ©2013  Carol Lee Beckx