Art Unlimited Auction (2011)
Organisers of Art Unlimited, Dunedoo Lions Club, will conduct a fund-raising auction at the exhibition’s opening night on Friday 20 May to help towards the costs of the event, which now offers more than $10,000 in prize money.
Works have been donated by several artists who have supported Art Unlimited with entries over the past three years. Charlotte Brougham, John Shields, Rosalie Swords, Geri Taylor and Lucy Watts, and have generously agreed to give works for the auction.
About the artists (2011)
Charlotte Brougham
Charlotte is 25 years old and currently lives in rural NSW with her two children. As number six in a long line up of children, Charlotte has always enjoyed the hustle and bustle of a busy house, but also the open spaces that the rural landscape has to offer.
It was not until she commenced her architectural studies at the University of New South Wales in 2006 that she began to explore the art world. Receiving High Distinctions in Design and Art Communications, Charlotte’s work was among that exhibited in the University’s promotion of the Faculty of Design.
Choosing to spend the early years with her young children, studies have been put on hold as she has returned home to the country to raise her family. This has however, presented her with the opportunity of allowing further exploration of the rural landscape as inspiration for creative play.
Using the rural structures from her childhood as the basis of her work, Charlotte plays on the simplicity of their architectural form. Perspective, light and shadow, or the lack thereof, plays an integral part in her images. Her contemporary drawings use these structures to question the spaces that they create. Is the space large or small? Floating or fixed? Are there any figures within it and if so, what can the audience tell of the figures? Images may be very precise and defined, or fluid and colourful, but will always contain bold and distinctive line and an element of human nature.
John Shields
• Fellow of the Australian Institute of History and Arts
• Life member and past president of the Macquarie Towns Arts Society
• Exhibiting member of the NSW Royal Art Society
• Life member of the Baulkham Hills Art Society
John Shields received tuition at Wagga Wagga Teachers’ College (1953-54). Except for this tuition he was self-taught, looking for his instruction to the works of such well-known Australian artists as Gruner, Streeton, Heysen and Robert Johnson. Their influence can be clearly seen in his work.
The main characteristics of John Shields’ work are atmosphere and light. He captures the varying light effects of the Australian landscape, be it the fog or mists of early morning, the harsh shimmering heat of midday, or the glorious glow and heat hazes of the afternoon. At all times he tries to capture the subtleties of the Australian atmosphere, He has numerous art prizes to his credit and his work is included in many private and public art collections in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, South Africa, USA and Western Germany, His work is also exhibited in many galleries in NSW and at his studio/gallery at Richmond.
Geri Taylor
Geri Taylor was born in Los Angeles and acquired her art education at UCLA. She studied the culture and arts of the Mayans in Guatemala for three years and travelled through Europe and the Americas studying design. Since 1979 Geri has been screen printing and painting in Australia, deepening her knowledge of colour, pattern, texture and design.
Her hand woven photos follow a natural progression from painting on canvas, to painting on strips of canvas and weaving them together to form new images. Geri slices photos part and weaves them back together, layering the photos like appliqué, creating an undulating textural quality that captures the eye of the viewer.
Using photographic elements and colours as you would threads in a tapestry, a complex, dynamic picture is built up revealing unmistakable hints of place, while concealing essential details. Each photo tells a story of a specific moment in time. Her work has been described as quirky, intriguing, enigmatic, cryptic and graphically bold.
Geri Taylor lives and works near the beach at Tuross Head. Her work can be found in collections in the US, Australia, Hawaii and Guatemala and at local galleries. She has won several awards, and in 2010 was selected as a finalist in the Basil Sellers Art Prize.
Rosalie Swords
Rosalie’s ceramics are part of a permanent display at the well-regarded Cudgegong Gallery at Gulgong. This gallery has hosted exhibitions of ceramics by artists of international standard. Rosalie’s work is also available at Mandurah Studio Co-Operative at Mudgee and Pandora Gallery at Coolah.
Winner of the ceramics section of the ‘Driven to Abstraction’ exhibition in Mudgee, Rosalie has been part of a variety of local exhibitions and art shows, receiving a Highly Commended award in the 2010 Art Unlimited exhibition at Dunedoo.
In 2009 Rosalie combined with a long-time friend to hold an exhibition at Hornsby Art Gallery, this time the body of work consisting of works in oils and pastels as well as ceramics. Both she and the other artist took their inspiration from studies of the creek bed on her family farm.
Rosalie trained as a Secondary Visual Arts teacher at the National Art School in Sydney, majoring in Ceramics and 3D design. She spent the next thirty years working in this capacity with a brief break to have a family. Ten years ago there was finally time to indulge in her passion for ceramics. Working part-time from her small studio on the family farm, Rosalie has attended several summer schools at East Sydney Tech to fine tune her skills, and has also branched out to explore a variety of 2D media, attending life drawing workshops at Ku-ring-gai Art Centre with Paul Miller and a master class on drawing with Jenny Hall. Currently Rosalie is involved in a clay sculpture course run by TAFE Mudgee campus.
Rosalie works in both stoneware and earthenware often with a strong sculptural element. Her ‘lizard’ bowls are stoneware, glaze on glaze, with a hand-modelled lizard following the curve of the bowl. Also in stoneware are ‘galah’ platters decorated with coloured slips with three hand-modelled galahs sitting around the rim of the platter. ‘Frog’ platters are a recent addition to this functional range. The earthenware range is non-functional consisting of slip cast ‘cubed animals’ coloured with bright barium glazes in blues greens and purples.
Lucy Watts
Growing up in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bronte, artist Lucy Watts never imagined the path her life would take, married to a farmer and living on a property near the small country town of Dunedoo in the NSW Central West.
A city girl through and through, Lucy completed a degree in communications with her sights set on a career in the high-powered conference, event and public relations industries. That all changed when she met Stuart Watts, a fourth generation farmer, who swept Lucy off her feet and carried her off to the family property 400 kms north west of Sydney.
The nearby wine region of Mudgee offered opportunities in the conference and event industry and Lucy spent several years making the 45-minute trip from the farm to work. When a job managing publicity and curating exhibitions at Cudgegong Gallery in the historic township of Gulgong came up – 20 minutes closer to home – Lucy began her professional connection with the world of art.
Although she had always been interested in creating artworks herself, it was not until the birth of her first child in 2001 that she was able to pursue this passion. Since then Lucy has worked on commissions, exhibitions and her own card range. Her distinctive cards are now to be found in galleries, gift shops, specialty food outlets and bookshops in the eastern states. Lucy’s marketing skills, combined with her artistry, ensure the list of stockists is growing by the day.
The ever-changing landscape that surrounds her in the country and the movement in life itself provide inspiration for her works. Magpies feature prominently in one series, inspired by an acrobatic and entertaining colony in her garden. Figs, limes and chillies are the theme of another series. Lucy says: “Everywhere I turn there are endless opportunities to create a moment of stillness from the energy and beauty of life.”