ROBERTSON PARK STUDIO 2019 NEWSLETTER

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Left to right: Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery Special Projects Curator Lee Kinsella, artist Frances Dennis, artist Sarah Jane Marchant and children, artist Bethamy Linton, artist Carol Rowling, artist Graham Hay, City of Vincent Mayor Emma Cole, artist Christopher McClelland, Vincent Cr Dan Loden. Decompression Opening night photo by Craig Robins.
Studio Exhibition
​The studio celebrated its 20th anniversary with Decompression, an exhibition at the Holmes à Court Gallery@No.10 Douglas Street, West Perth.  The Friday 22 November Opening was formally opening by Emma Cole, City of Vincent Mayor, and Keynote speaker:  Lee Kinsella, Special Projects Curator at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, UWA, in front of two hundred people.  Music was by well-known Perth Chamber Group, Dolce Ensembles.  

At the gallery on the afternoon of Sunday 24 November, the artists spoke about their work, inspiration, and answered questions from the audience.   Also within the gallery was a contemporary dance performance, developed by WAAPA students  intercepting Graham’s ideologies and art: choreographer Isabel Wartmann and dancers Karlia Cook and Isabelle Collie,.

To provide a context to the exhibition,  the City of Vincent Library Local History Centre staff and designers created an informational wall display at the exhibition on the history of the Robertson Park and studio building. more...

Studio Open day

On Sunday 18 August around a hundred interested members of the public, professional and recreational artists, curators, art writers and collectors visited the studio.
​Artists are in order their news received.
Christopher McClelland 

I began the year with a change of direction, moving away from the explorations of cultural identity that had been the dominant theme for the past few years, into a more intuitive way of working.
Explorations of light and colour, enjoying the wonderful fluidity of oil paint, exploring the art of painting itself and a bit of an obsession with an almost Jungian view of the Indian Ocean dominated 2019. It was supposed to be an experimental year. I had decided not to hold a solo exhibition and just to enter a few awards and exhibit with the studio. It turned out to be one of my more successful years with a major award and several other award exhibitions as a shortlisted finalist. A lot of work sold, both from the awards and from the studio. The year culminated with our wonderful studio exhibition, ‘Decompression’, at the Holmes à Court@No.10 Gallery. It has been a privilege to work with the other artists at Robertson Park, both during the year at the studio and during open days and exhibitions. Their support and collegiality has meant a lot to me throughout the year.
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www.christophermcclellandartist.com
​Sarah Jane Marchant

The official launch of My Welcome Book by local Perth author Diana Smith started 2019 with Sarah’s striking illustrations.  Work on the third in the series will start shortly with a possible launch before Christmas 2020.  Sarah continued her adult painting classes with the addition of a weekday class which has proved popular and will continue into 2020. Her kid’s art classes in Two Rocks also continued throughout the year but will take a break in 2020 to focus on her own work as well as juggling two children at different schools with her eldest starting high school this year.   Sarah has exhibited and sold at a number of local government exhibitions throughout the year including Cossacks in the North West and selected for the City of Stirling Art Awards as well as Joondalup Art Gallery.  With regards to her painting practice Sarah has made the addition of the Bowerbird and his nest to her Boab paintings and this has been the focus of her work for much of the year in the lead up to Decompression, and may well continue into the future. Her painting on circular canvases and boards will also develop over the coming months as she develops her symbolism of the Boab tree further. 
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https://www.sarahjanemarchant.com 
Carol Rowling

​​2019 started with a continuing solo exhibition at Collie Art Gallery Collie, it is a beautiful purpose built gallery and  the friendly staff and people of Collie were very helpful and welcoming.

With fellow artist Fran Dennis and husband Ross and my husband Bob and I we travelled up to Cossack for the art awards, it was an amazing trip and even more an amazing exhibition. We live in a wonderful state.

I also was thrilled to receive a Highly Commended at the Ellenbrook Art awards held in the Council Chambers and exhibited with the Collage Group at the Zig Zag Gallery in Kalamunda. Of course our studio exhibition at the Holmes a Court Gallery was a very successful exhibition for all us.

This year I will be working on another body of work and have a group show with The Carine Art Group in Walpole.

www.carolrowling.com.au
Graham Hay

Graham was invited to participate in the Falguni Bhatt curated Ceramics and Beyond Symposium,  at Art Ichol, Maihar, India.  With Korean raku artist Kim Young Soo he  gave a workshop  for the AFSA - Fired Art group in Kolkata.  His article on metal in paper clay was published in the US Studio Potter journal.  A work was selected for the Janis Nadela curated Ceramic Art Association of WA Exhibition , at the Heathcote Museum & Art Gallery.  Another was selected by Peter Hill for Particle & Wave, an international paper clay survey exhibition which will tour five US museums until 2021. The City of Vincent sponsored  a two hour interview , the video and transcripts were archived in the library and a short video on Youtube.  Army Art WA published another interview in their February Blog.   In July Channel 9 Today Perth, broadcast live from Graham's class.  He became a member of the the Académie Internationale de la Céramique.  In September his PhD candidacy was accepted.  Via Curtin and Edith Cowan alumni he mentored three undergraduates, and Adelaide College of the Arts graduate Nerida Bell  received a Helpmann grant to attend Graham’s studio classes and Masterclass. The studio classes enter their 21st year.    www.grahamhay.com.au
Frances Dennis

2019 was spent painting and sculpting with clay, as is my habit.  In April I made a three week  road/camping trip through the Pilbara with visiting the Cossack Art Awards as the main reason for leaving the city.  But taking in the wondrous colours in our landscape and skies all over again  proved to be the creative push for the paintings in our group exhibition, Decompression,  at the Holmes a Court @ No.10 Douglas St.   The colours and sense of space which abounds in our less populated areas have been, and will remain, a constant in my painting.  

​I will continue to make my Franikins in their many and varied manifestations as they are a perfect playful complement to making within my art practice.  I’m looking forward to another happy year, working in the studio with the studio artists.

​  www.francesdennis.com
​Bethamy Linton

After her successful solo exhibition and multiple public acquisitions in 2018, 2019 saw Bethamy return a focus commission work and running silversmithing classes at Robertson Park while taking part in a number of group exhibitions including a Jewellers and Metalsmiths Group of Western Australia show at which Bethamy won an award for excellence for her “Princess Parrot Icon, Rare and Vanishing Australian Birds Series” and Decompression with the Robertson Park Artists Studio group at which Bethamy’s pen and ink drawings were acquired by the Holmes a’Court collection. In 2020 Bethamy looks forward to consolidating her practice and to a return of focus on small scale objects and sculpture in an extension of work started in 2018/19 exploring the fragility of the natural world and our increasingly compromised biodiversity.
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www.bethamylinton.com
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