An installation of my work, ‘Totems of the land’, consisting of a painting and five ceramics, has been selected for the exhibition, ‘Land’, at Manly Art Gallery & Museum. The exhibition has been curated by Katherine Roberts, senior curator at the Manly Art Gallery & Museum, and explores the notion of land. A noun, a verb, a place, an idea, a possibly, a presence, a contested space, Landscape, headland, wasteland, landfill, landmine. The exhibition runs from the 3rd of November to the 3rd of December 2017. I will be participating in Artists ‘In Conversation’, Sunday 19th of November, 3 – 4 pm, and High Tea for Artists & Friends, Sunday 3rd December, 3 – 4 pm, all welcome.

In my work the river, trees, rocks and the broad spatial vistas of an enduring Australian landscape become a series of signs or totems. The land is reduced to a sequence of abstracted gestural marks, which like a text are a language to be deciphered, acknowledging our need to understand and work with the land in order to preserve its fragile ecosystems.

There is a relationship and a cross fertilisation between the hand built ceramic form and acrylic paint on linen. Iron oxide of the stoneware clay bleeds through numerous glaze firings, mirrored by an evolution and layering of acrylic paint on the linens surface. It is a conversation between paint and clay.

The land is embodied in the vessel forms and in a poetic language of a totemic landscape.

Medium:  Acrylic on linen, Stoneware ceramic with glaze, two timber stands

Dimensions: Painting 137 x 153 cm, Five Ceramics; 35 x 18 x 18 cm, 51 x 37 x 28 cm, 41 x 13 x 25 cm, 29 x 38 x 9 cm, 42 x 33 x 32 cm