"VERTIGO WARRIORS "- JANE TONKS

The upcoming exhibition is Jane’s first solo Printmaking exhibition in a major gallery.

The exhibition title ‘Vertigo Warriors’ has been inspired by Jane’s recent journey with breast cancer. The theme of the exhibition and artwork is based upon Jane’s emotional and spiritual response to the challenges and changes faced on the road through treatment and recovery. “Printmaking provides me with a very cathartic way to document my journey and express myself” Jane said.

This will be Jane’s first solo exhibition as a professional visual artist since completing her Diploma of Fine Arts through Western Institute of TAFE at the end of 2011.

Jane’s arts practice balances its focuses between the art of printmaking and also creating large scale oil and acrylic paintings and mixed media drawings. Within the printmaking discipline, Jane explores copper-sulphate etchings on aluminium plates, woodblock prints, linocuts, collagraphs and monoprints. The exhibition will feature a range of different printmaking mediums and techniques used to create the artworks on display. 

A printmaking display by Jane will be held on Saturday 12th April from 10am - 12pm, don't miss this opportunity to see how it is done. 

‘Vertigo Warriors’ - Artist Statement by Jane Tonks

Prints appeal to me as they have the beautiful qualities of a limited, handmade, collectable piece of original artwork. It is the manual, meditative process of Printmaking that I find so appealing. Each plate requires a labour of love, creativity and patience. My artworks are full of whimsical figures and landscapes that intertwine to create quirky narratives on life.

‘Vertigo’, the fear of falling over the edge, is a metaphor for the devastation you feel when diagnosed with cancer. The imagery of ‘paper-chain’ figures in these prints is an icon for the many ‘Warrior Women’ who are going through, or have gone through breast cancer. The paper chain exhibits qualities of both strength and fragility in equal measure.  These whimsical figures represent the many wonderful women I have met along the way and the strength and resilience gained through personal caring networks of family and friends.

As time has progressed, these figures seem to have taken on a life-force of their own and I’m never sure what they will be doing next, however, there is always a deeper examination and expression of emotion and mortality underlying the whimsical notions. I hope these artworks resonate with a powerful message about resilience, survival and hope.

 "Dreams of flight"

"SMOKE MUSE"

'Smoke Muse' by Penelope Jo Matchett opening Friday 7th March, 2014.


Finding new inspiration as an artist can sometimes be challenging. Penelope began experimenting with photographing smoke with studio lighting, manipulating the smoke to create different shapes and patterns. Upon showing the images to others, she discovered everyone sees something different in the smoke. Penelope set off on the challenge of recreating the sometimes abstract shapes and scenes that she and others created from the smoke.

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A Sneak peak

A quick look around the gallery

"....like a three ring circus" - a whimsical zen communique!

Exhibiting at Jayes Gallery for the first time, two well known and recognised artists who have moved to the country from the city to gain the freedom and inspiration that the ‘bush’ provides.
 Davies’s mark making expands on the everyday objects found in country fields and down country lanes. There is a ‘zen’ like quality about these pastel and soft paintings that evoke the ethereal and remind one of dreams and fleeting impressions. Hoyle brings a range of metals, found objects and bright steel together in intriguing sculptures that range from large to small and have a whimsical quality to them. They remind one of Lewis Carroll’s “Looking through the Looking Glass” with their unique compositions.

This is an exhibition that will delight the viewer and collector alike.

“….like a three ring circus”

Artist: Jaq Davies

Sculptor: Glenn Hoyle

Exhibition opens: Friday 3 August at 6.00 pm

Exhibition runs: 3 August – 2 September 2012

Watson Show a triumph!

 

The recent exhibition at Jayes of Sally Watson's clear and pure colours, sculpted fields and formed roads, gentle works that are calm in essence. Watson told us in her floor talk how the burning of the summer fields around her bush home brought fear and tears when she returned from work last summer. Her house, although safe, was surrounded by black ash and burnt paddocks.

Her photos showed the underlying sculptural form of the burnt world, a world that she wasn't able to return to for a while and the grief that she felt when surveying the damage. But her works, which were created from this chaos, have nothing of the darkness that she herself felt or described. Watson worked through the emotional content of that summer fire through these refined drawings and paintings.

It was an excellent introduction that Sally gave us to her work that evening as she spoke quietly of the moments of her returning 'home' and 'homeless'. She gave us generously an insight to her work and the thoughts behind the marks she has now made, a memory inscribed in time.

The exhibition runs to 12 September and is a beautiful show. Hurry, you still have some time left before we bring you the next exhibition, which is quite different from this one.

"Line and Link" - Digital artists challenge the 'way we see'!

Digital art is only just beginning to make its mark in the halls of art here in Australia. Whilst it has been an accepted arts practice in other countries, we are still lagging behind here in our understanding of how important this art form is. Whilst digital art is represented at biennales and art fairs around the globe, Australians still find it hard to comprehend the exact nature of the work attributing it to the computer rather than to the operator artist who has found a new set of tools with which to create.


To take a look at the show, click here!

The two artists in this exhibition, Jolanta Nejman and Phil Salmon have however, been working within computer technology now for over 25 years and so have great skills that can translate now into beautiful and compelling artworks in the new media. They have taken graphic software and pushed it to its limits to produce images of great complexity and sophistication.

Phil shows the ability to push a photographic image to the limit where it crosses the boundary and becomes an artwork whilst Jolanta layers intricate images and develops stylised pictures that stretch our mind.

More....