Cloud Contemplation is an exploration of travel experiences and imaginative formations intertwining. Each canvas encapsulates a recollection of gliding through textured clouds while marvelling at the vibrant city streaks below. This reflected experience, parallel to the meticulously applied textured paint on canvas, shows an interconnection where memory, imagination, and the tangible world seamlessly meld together.

Embedded within my artistic practice is the dynamic spontaneity inherent in abstract expressionism. I paint with palette knives which allow me to craft textural marks, expressive gestures, and elevate the interplay of colours, depth, and movement in these works. These characteristics are shown in the Cloud Contemplation pieces.

“Fading light, the grain of timber, fabric, air and ground. Through these paintings I hope to bring the serenity and wonder of the natural environment into our constructed spaces; a beautiful reminder of our interdependence on this world.”

Exhibition Opening: 2-4pm Sat 9th March 2024

Opening RSVP please click here

Nature, man, space, spirituality, beauty, harmony, architecture, music, mathematics, geometry, feelings, memories, experiences, all together in every single brushstroke for many brushstrokes that recreate everything where I, a painter, exist like the bee or the mountain.

 I wish I could look at everything in one moment, to be able to paint everything in the same painting, to feel everything without forgetting anything. 

Exhibition Opening: 2-4pm Sat 9th March

Opening RSVP please click here

I’ve always been fascinated by texture in artworks. You just want to reach out and touch it. All those abstracted marks and random accidents that happen when you push and pull textured materials around a canvas or across a board. It’s a kind of magic that forms some amazing touches and characteristics. I find these effects stunning to look at and notice they often mimic the natural textures we see every day in the landscape.

Other surfaces, including super smooth glossy resins also just intrigue me. That ’magpie eye’ for smooth and shiny things is somehow engrained in people, myself included. A crystal clear lake or gently flowing stream has that similar look and feel in nature.

With these fascinations in mind, I’ve added and mixed these textural extremes together in to create the artworks for this exhibition “Tactile, Textured Terrain”

Exhibition opening: 2-4pm Sat 9 March 2024

Opening RSVP please click here

Introduction to the Vitruvian Tree

I draw imagined trees and mythical landscapes. Sometimes my landscapes are stoney. Sometimes the landscapes are burned. Sometimes the trees survive, damaged but still standing, with the stones alongside them. My work in this exhibition shows it all.

In ‘Vitruvian Tree’ I have drawn an old and majestic tree, undamaged by Man or Nature. It is perhaps my version of an ‘iconic tree’. I was inspired by ‘Vitruvian Man’, the famous drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, based on the work of the Roman architect Vitruvius, in 1 BC. 1,500 years later Leonardo used the proportions given by an overlayed circle and square to draw an ideal man. I have used the same forms to draw an ideal tree. 

I work in fine-tipped pigment ink pens on cotton rag paper. The papers are of varying textures and tones, the pens of varying tip size and flow. The final drawings are a detailed melding of the inks as they settle into and inhabit the cotton fibres of the paper: similar to the roots of tree holding to the earth. 

Exhibition Opening: 2-4pm Sat 9 March 2024

Opening RSVP please click here

Join award winning pastel artist Janet Thatcher for an introductory two day workshop and learn how to paint striking wildlife portraits.  In this class Janet will take you through step by step the art of pastels and everything you will need to know to get started.  Then how to put these skills into creating your very own animal portrait.  

For class Booking please click HERE

Class date: Sat 25th & Sun 26th November

Class time: 10:00am-4:00pm

*Lunch, morning & afternoon tea will be provided* 

Day 1: Basics and understanding the art of pastels

Day 2: Creating a beautiful portrait

All materials needed for the workshop will be provided in studio and supplies will be available to purchase on the day if you would like to take some home. Pastels are addictive after all! 

Exciting news! We have teamed up with ACT wildlife and award winning pastel artist Janet Thatcher for a special WILDLIFE RAFFLE!

Be a hero by supporting this wildlife RAFFLE, be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Every ticket purchased assists ACT wildlife to Rescue, Rehabilitate, and Release wildlife.

*Tickets are available for purchase from now on*

For tickets purchase please click HERE (1 ticket for $4.00 or 3 tickets for $10.00)

RAFFLE PRIZE:

1. Original pastel painting by Janet Thatcher (framed), valued at $2,500.00. (1 winner)

2. One framing voucher valued at $100.00 from The Framers, Gold Creek. (3 winners)

3. One framing voucher valued at $50.00 from The Framers, Gold Creek. (5 winners)

Tickets can be purchased online, over the phone (Ph: 0499 107 887) or at Aarwun Gallery, the winning tickets will be drawn on 17th Dec 2023, at the end of the exhibition.

GET YOUR RAFFLE TICKETS TODAY: 1 ticket for $4.00 or 3 tickets for $10.00.

Let’s make a difference together by supporting ACT Wildlife!

In this two day Acrylics master class, you will be learning how to negotiate the rewarding medium of acrylic paint. Learn how to block in, layer, scumble, glaze and much, much more with artist Leigh D Walker. In this 2-day workshop you will be exploring still life and landscape painting.

Class date: 28th & 29th October

Class time: 10:00am-4:00pm

*Lunch, morning & afternoon tea will be provided*

Click HERE for class booking.

Exhibition dates: 20 Oct - 19 Nov

Location: Aarwun Gallery, 11 Federation Sq, O’Hanlon Pl, Nicholls, ACT

To view this exhibition online please click HERE

Kris Ancog's inaugural solo exhibition at Aarwun Gallery unveils a mesmerizing collection of paintings that beckon viewers to submerge themselves in ethereal abstract landscapes. Termed meditative dreamscapes by the artist himself, "Sacred Realm" offers a haven of tranquility amidst the tumultuous backdrop of our frenetic modern existence—a reflection of our perennial pursuit of meaning and inner peace.

At the heart of Ancog's creations lies a profound mastery in capturing dramatic sunsets and illuminating them with an exquisite play of light—a hallmark of his artistic prowess. His deft use of vibrant colours and alluring contrasts imbues each piece with an unmistakable sense of depth and transcendence. Employing acrylics as the initial medium of choice, Ancog meticulously constructs the organic foundations of these abstract landscapes, layer by layer. The subsequent layers of oil paints lend his works a captivating translucence, reminiscent of the techniques employed by the classical masters, yet imbued with a distinctly contemporary sensibility.

"Sacred Realm" by Kris Ancog encapsulates the essence of the sublime. Drawing inspiration from the natural world's luminous beauty and an imagined sacred realm, this exhibition aspires to evoke the profound enigma of what lies beyond our comprehension. It beckons us to pause, to introspect, and to surrender ourselves to an enchanting universe. In this captivating journey, we discover a profound appreciation for our inherent connection with nature, ultimately leading us to a profound sense of oneness.

About

The annual National Capital Art Prize is the first Australia-wide competition for artworks of any subject.

National Capital Art Prize acknowledges the traditional custodians of this land on which we meet, work and live. We recognise and respect their continuing connection to the land, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

Learn the secrets of how to paint beautiful and imaginative landscapes.

In this two day master class, Ted Lewis, now one of Australia's leading and respected oil painters. Ted will share with you his wealth of knowledge and experience in painting our wonderful Australian landscape.

Click HERE to book now

Date: Sat 29th & Sun 30th July 2023

Time: 10:00am to 4:30pm (Please arrive 5 minutes before the class starts)

Location: Aarwun Gallery

Teacher: Ted Lewis

Exhibition opening: Sat 22 July 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Aarwun Gallery.

Exhibition dates: 22 July - 13 August

For opening RSVP please click Here

Animalia is the scientific name for one of the great families of living organisms on Earth. Almost all of Sophie’s paintings depict animal life. In this exhibit she has included a selection of new works inspired by both her ongoing relationship with Japan and Japanese art and her love of nature and animals. In many of Sophie’s works, including those in this exhibition, the central image is set against a scheme of coloured squares or rectangles. These shapes and colours represent the traditional way of using squares of gold leaf applied across the backgrounds of large Japanese painted internal doors. Because traditional Japanese architecture had no glazing, the deep internal spaces were dark, and the gold leaf had the effect of adding reflected light. Gold is incorporated into many traditional Japanese arts and crafts because of its beauty and relative abundance in Japan.

About the Artist

Sophie was born in Tokyo, Japan, and grew up in Kyoto. She studied environmental science at university; and much of her work is linked to this background of scientific education and her childhood in Japan. Sophie has been fortunate enough to travel widely both within Australia as well as Europe, East Asia and the Pacific. Many of her paintings are of animals that she has seen in the wild or animals that have fascinated her. Because of Sophie’s interest in science and scientific training, she creates images in her unique colour schemes, while always remaining as faithful as she can to the actual morphology of her animal subject. She maintains strong links to Japan and continues to visit often. Many of Sophie’s most characteristic works are her unique re-interpretations of traditional Japanese images, as well as European works of art.

Exhibition opening: Sat 22 July 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Aarwun Gallery.

Exhibition dates: 22 July - 13 August

For opening RSVP please click Here

This exhibit brings together a selection of Lucy’s most recent work, much of which was specifically inspired by her love of music. Lucy is always listening to music while she paints, and the music has a direct effect on the composition, structure and mood of each of her works. Lucy has an extremely eclectic taste in music. She has always felt that music and painting are the closest art forms, because the structures that lace together musical compositions and paintings are essentially there to enhance an emotional effect for the audience. Once we have heard music or seen a painting, we can carry it in our minds forever.

About the Artist

Lucy is almost exclusively a figure painter; and although some of her works are true self-portraits, many have evolved to be a psychological exposition of an inner moment. She studied classical voice and piano. Like music, Lucy’s work conveys an emotional expression rather than a didactic statement, with the emotional quality expressed through colour, line and form. Drawing is the creative foundation for all of Lucy’s work. She draws constantly in ink on paper. These drawings often evolve into larger watercolour or oil paintings. Lucy values the original drawings as works of art in themselves and does not think of them as preliminary studies. She also has a longstanding interest in myths and mythology.

Exhibition opening: Sat 22 July 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Aarwun Gallery.

Exhibition dates: 22 July - 13 August

For opening RSVP please click Here

Luminescence is the spontaneous emission of light through chemical reactions. This exhibit brings together recent paintings by Alice Pulvers that are all intensely energetic and  colourful. The chemistry of paint is at work in each of these works. The aesthetic culture of Japan, which Alice absorbed during her childhood years in Tokyo and  Kyoto and in her travels in Europe and other parts of Asia, have all melded together to give her work a unique language of structure, imagination and colour. In these paintings Alice combines striking realism with vivid imagined landscapes.

About the Artist

Alice was born in Tokyo, Japan and spent much of her childhood in Kyoto. This early period of her life profoundly affected her visual imagination and reflects the dominating obsession of Japanese art as it depicts the natural world. Alice has also had the opportunity to spend extended periods living in Paris, as well as travelling in Germany, the UK, China and Singapore. The art Alice saw on her travels has melded in her painting, which is filled with images of air, water, animal and plant life. She recreates the strange relationships between the way we as humans experience our world and the forces of the universe acting upon our sense of reality. In Alice’s work, elements of naturalism, such as birds, fish, cattle and cats, appear in two-dimensional schematic landscapes. These are reminiscent of the way Japanese art flattens and arranges landscapes. Water birds appear frequently in her paintings. Alice has a fascination with these special birds, which can swim under the water, float on the water, walk on the land and fly in the air. In this way they transcend the forces of nature that confine many other living things, including ourselves.

To view this exhibition online please Click here

About love and animals is the name I have chosen for this show.  The works explore the feeling of loving another, expressions of love for animals and nature. These works are offerings and studies of moments where people, places and animals coexist.

To awake into the day and feel inspired to go on with exploring.  A feeling that transforms ultimately becoming the inspiration to go into the studio and make art.  Animals form part of my daily routine.  

I love animals they are amazingly communicative, generous yet simple in their needs and unconditional in their love.  Cute and funny, always making for interesting experiences, therapeutic.

We are reminded to be present in this moment, to be grateful.  So in this show my intention is to honour the love and animals that are here all around us, remembering that we humans are animals too.

Love is pure.  Love gives us strength.  Love is a source of inspiration.  Love enhances what is best in us.  It is also fun and naughty this thing called love.  It reminds us to be here now in connection with the simple joys.  For me these sentiments vibrate and resonate, translate and unfold into colours, lines and fields on the canvas, the paper, the clay. 

“When animals express their feelings they pour out like water from a spout. Animals' emotions are raw, unfiltered, and uncontrolled. Their joy is the purest and most contagious of joys and their grief the deepest and most devastating. Their passions bring us to our knees in delight and sorrow.” *

As far back as I can remember I have always drawn and painted. I have always wondered about this as nobody in my family was artistic, neither were any of my friends. I don’t know why I started… or why I have never stopped.

At some point I realised that art is more than just representation… it’s a kind of a trip into your mind, and what you can see in there and how you can materialise it into a visual experience…

I can’t remember who wrote this but… “when you start working, everybody is in your studio - the past, your friends, your enemies, the art world, and above all, your own ideas - all are there. But, as you continue painting, they start leaving, one by one, and you are left completely alone. Then, if you're lucky, even you leave…”

Mishima wrote about the emotions of one of his fictional characters as being like a flag in the wind, blowing this way and that way… well, that’s me. I cannot paint simply what I see, it’s not enough, I have to paint what I feel, I have to tell a story, my paintings are an emotional trip, fuelled by memories of mainly unpleasant experiences. I guess they are a combination of figurative storytelling and abstract (non-representational) mark making…

I end up painting subjects that are symbolic and reflect how I feel. If I start a painting on Monday while feeling nervous but I wake up on Tuesday feeling okay, I can’t continue with that painting. Most of my paintings have 2, 3, or even 4 paintings beneath the top finished painting as my mood changes so I paint over paintings that no longer mean anything to me.

The paintings in this exhibition have all survived and mean more to me than I can say. Each painting tells a story, evokes a memory, or reflects a state of mind, they are not art for art’s sake, they are art for my sanity’s sake…

—John A Rowe

This is an all-consuming title, covering a wide range of work, many of which are direct from the studio. It is work from pre and post COVID travels and encounters.

From India to France, Morocco and Italy. The works also celebrate this remarkable country, from inner Sydney to the Daintree National Park. The paintings are not picture postcards but personal, observations and encounters; some created ‘plein air’ on location.

Arriving in new environments means stepping outside your comfort zone. For a visual artist, that is both challenging and stimulating. The more visually foreign, the more you have to learn new languages to understand it. It’s like seeing for the first time with fresh and untainted eyes. This major exhibition is the sum total of that engagement.

—Bernard Ollis

2023

Eggpicnic is a Canberra based design studio devoted to wildlife conservation set up by designers and birders Camila De Gregorio and Christopher Macaluso. They devote their work and illustrations to wildlife conservation, working collaboratively together, and with science. They create characters that tread a fine line between art and design, aiming to capture the beauty of the natural world with the hope of inspiring others to protect it. 

They are part of a new era of artists who use their talents to open our eyes to the world around us, bringing colourful ecosystems into everyday life and creating striking reminders for those in urban environments that we are not the only species worth serving. 

Home Story is a collection of works, created between 2018 and 2022, featuring iconic, vulnerable and endangered habitats and species of Australia. Over the years humanity has built an invisible wall between humans and everything else—a wall which frees us from accountability, dependency, and responsibility toward those beings on the “other side”. Home Story is an invitation to let our walls fall and experience this space with a sense of wonder, intimacy and responsibility for the future.

This exhibition explores how we see everything through our own inner world of memory and imagination, what is physically there, and what is unseen .

“No matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away.” ― Haruki Murakami, ‘Kafka on the Shore’

There are major oil paintings, as well as a collection of small intimate work, many of these in antique frames from Paris flea markets. These are like fragments of poetry or artefacts of unknown histories, silent and resonant. I have added a new narrative to each of these pieces while still retaining a feeling of mystery and possibility. 

The suite of large oil paintings depict someone whose inner life is made visible, surrounding them with open ended dream like images. The paintings are simultaneously about past and future, the invisible and tangible. There are no limits to the possible meanings of each painting as they are neither prescriptive or illustrational. The viewer is invited to bring their own interpretation. There are endless possibilities, like creativity itself. 

First nations Australians are a key part of this epic. Aside from traditional lands being explored and later occupied by Europeans there are many “first contact “stories that are often overshadowed by the mythology of the heroic explorers. Similarly the contingent of three Afghans and one Indian that were brought to Australia with twenty six camels added another element to this saga.

In the 1844 exploration of unchartered regions in Queensland and the Northern Territory  by Ludwig Leichhardt there were two Indigenous guides who were crucial to the expedition .It soon became apparent to other colonial explorers such as Sturt and Giles that the intimate knowledge of the land by the first inhabitants was key to survival .

In the 1860 Burke and Wills journey a number of local guides accompanied the explorers at varying stages . Two local “blacks” (Simon and Watipa) were recruited at Balranald to show the way to the Darling River. Likewise at Menindee , men from the Wilakali language group accompanied the expedition to Coopers Creek .

This involvement with a large contingent of white men, camels and horses who were trespassing across traditional borders, occupying sacred waterholes and eating copious amounts of vegetation (at the expense of local wildlife) came at great personal risk to the guides. One Wilakali man “Dick “is credited with saving the lives of the explorers on several occasions by finding obscure waterholes and negotiating his way out of attack from hostile tribes.

The Yandruwandha people of the Coopers Creek region assisted the starving explorers with gifts of fish, food and water . John King was to live with the tribe for some months during which time he fathered a daughter from a local woman.

Other language groups in Queensland such as the Wanyiwalku also assisted Burke and Wills as they traversed the country up to the Gulf of Carpentaria and back. While some tribes were hostile towards these intruders they were mostly met with curiosity and hospitality as they were believed to be spirit beings. With an abundance of “bush tucker “that had sustained these communities for centuries the locals were mystified as to why these white men were dying of thirst and starvation.

Sadly for the many language groups situated along the exploration route the discovery of waterholes, rivers and vast areas of pasture meant that European settlers were soon to arrive in outback New South Wales and Queensland. A major stock route would follow the iconic Coopers Creek and Darling River and much of the outback would see traditional lands occupied with sheep and cattle stations.

 This would forever alter the fate of the First Australians.

The ill fated expedition of Burke and Wills in 1860 was to change the lives of countless Australians for generations to come as vast areas of the continent were chartered for the first time. Trade routes had existed for centuries along the network of great rivers including the Murray, Darling, Diamantina and Cloncurry, waterways like Coopers Creek, small waterholes and wetlands such as Menindee and Lake Bulloo. The area of exploration included a diverse range of geography as well as an equally diverse range of First Australian language groups. 

 My own personal story connected with this land began during my childhood . My grandparents and their parents were from outback Queensland and so I experienced the vastness of this region when visiting sheep and cattle stations at far flung places including Winton and Cloncurry. Later as an adult I was to tour the Simpson Desert from Melbourne  via much the same land route taken by Burke and Wills . An obligatory part of that journey was of course to visit the famous and lonely Dig Tree on Coopers Creek . At Coongie Lakes and Innamincka I visited the remains of ceremonial grounds and petroglyphs….. a poignant reminder of the ancient past and tribes that had encountered this expedition.

Flightpaths from Melbourne or Sydney to Asia often took me over the same region and as my interest in aerial landscapes became a key part of my art practice the geography of inland Australia became a major inspiration.

I incorporated drawings and photographs from my own travels by land and air to interpret the salt lakes, deserts, gorges and other topographical features. With the advent of the internet and satellite imagery I was able to re- explore the same places from the comfort of my armchair.

A few years ago when doing some family history research I discovered that my great grandfather Thomas Mallyon was in fact a drover in his youth. To my surprise I found that he traversed the inland stock route from Queensland to South Australia which involved herding large numbers of cattle along the network of inland waterways chartered by Burke and Wills. Major stops along the stock route included Coopers Creek, Menindee Lakes and the Darling River. I realised that not only had I camped in some of the same places as Burke and Wills but also that of my great grandfather.

This series of images documents some of the areas of the 1860 expedition from regional Victoria, the dry and spectacular interior of New South Wales and up to the wetlands of the Gulf of Carpentaria.  Historical maps and photos, the hand written diaries of the explorers, satellite images and my own drawings and travel photos are all source material for these mixed media paintings on paper and aluminium.

Greg Mallyon 2022

It gives me great pleasure to present my very first exhibition of watercolours with Aarwun Gallery, even though I was first introduced to watercolour in the early nineties while teaching at Charles Sturt University by Joseph Zbukvic and later with good friends Herman Pekel and Ross Patterson. I have painted with them off and on again up until the last five years. I have pursued watercolour more to try and improve on the outcome. The magical light filled quality they have, reflecting the white paper back through the pigment along with the granulated washes that mix on the paper. This exhibition consists of a lot of inspiration from my travels around the world. As it’s such a portable medium, I hope you enjoy my collection.

This exhibition by watercolour artist Sandra Hendy is aptly named “An Eclectic Collection” considering the diversity of style and subjects displayed. Sandra is a member of the Australian Watercolour Institute and each of these watercolours are   contemporary in nature, stylish and sophisticated in approach, and creative and imaginary in execution. Eye catching cloisonné paint, paper collage, gouache and pen work are signature markings of Sandra’s work transforming the watercolours from one of general interest to a greater scrutiny.

“ Recently I have spent a fair amount of time in and around Canberra and the majority of  these works have a definite localised feel to them. From sweeping panoramas to moody, foggy landscapes and little bit in between. There is a real sense of atmosphere in these works and a push in various painting techniques and influences to capture the uniqueness in the sights and sounds I’ve been inspired by”.

This exhibition titled “Embracing” by landscape artist Xiangrong Yu, is a collection of works influenced by his surrounds, reflecting his appreciation of that environment. It dares to try and innovate different expressions with subjectiveness. Resulting in a wonderful collection of artworks, which would appeal to most discerning art lovers.

This exhibition brings to light natural areas, both near and far, as places to protect, care for and be part of. In exploring the sublimity of distant landscapes and our connection to them, particularly through our immediate environment, we are able to redefine and reflect on our place within wilderness.