Thanks to all our fabulous volunteers for all the contributions for the 28 Days project. This is our final instalment.

28 DAYS OF STANTHORPE ART

 Over the past month, we have been sharing stories and images of art to celebrate our reopening.

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook or our blog for updates. 

Thanks to all our volunteers who have contributed to this project:

• Monday: #mondaymuse with Mary Rofe

• Tuesday: #tuesdayswithlaurie with Laurie Astill

• Wednesday: #wackywednesday with Susan Peters

• Thursday: #throwbackthursday with Sandra McEwan

• Friday: #fridayfun, #siloart with Robert Bryan

• Saturday: #stanthorpepotterysaturday with Yve Gray

• Sunday: #sundayartstanthorpe with Michelle Conkas & Joe Wilkinson

Tuesday 30 June

#tuesdayswithlaurie

A painting of my wife Anna in our backyard in afternoon light with a Stanthorpe red in hand. A picture could tell a thousand words but this one certainly is special and is still a work in progress. We shared solitude and happiness in this spot at the end of each day but sadly she has recently passed. Because of her illness I was not able to continue on this work but as she was my greatest critic upon seeing what I had painted so far she said "Get rid of the double chin". This shall be done in the near future as I pick up the brushes again.

Wednesday 1 July

Russian artist, Denis Sheckler, @pills_for_skills,  explores his wacky world through a digital medium. His work starts with photography but is soon manipulated into a final image that provokes the senses. His portraits of female faces often include elements of the universe or water, creating a continuous thread that allows the viewer to move through the images seamlessly. While definitely wacky, Shecklers art form is beautiful, thought provoking and mysterious. 

See more of his work: https://pillsforskills.com/

 #wackywednesday

Thanks to Susan Peters for contributing this.

Thursday 2 July

#throwbackthursday

Thanks to Sandra McEwan for contributing this.

Friday 3 July

Weethalle is a small country town in central-western NSW. This silo arrangement is 21 meters high and 31 meters wide. It was painted by a Melbourne based artist Heesco Khosnaran. The mural is a tribute to the rich agricultural heritage of the community of Weethalle and the Shire of Bland. It portrays a shearer, a grain farmer and a small flock of sheep on the balcony keeping an eye over the land.

#fridayfun, #TGIF #siloart

Thanks to Robert Bryan for contributing this.

Saturday 4 July

The Regional Art Development Fund (RADF) is a partnership between the Queensland Government and Southern Downs Regional Council to support local arts and culture in Regional Queensland which allowed ceramic fans had a great opportunity to learn more about the Art of Pottery during the two day workshop which was led by ceramic artist Max Powel who showed the group how to use inspiration from the landscape to create form texture and colour. 

Photo 1 Workshop demonstration by Max Powel 

Photo 2 Workshop group photo

Photo 3 Exhibition of work from workshop at the Pottery Club.

Photo 4 Alba says, “I would recommend Max Powell as a tutor because he is a very talented artiste, potter and sculptor. He is an excellent tutor, with many years of experience, and this is evident with the work that his students produce.”

Thanks to Yve Gray for contributing this.

#stanthorpepotterysaturday

Sunday 5 July

Memory of an Evening by Robyn Sweaney is another favourite of Joe’s from the Gallery Collection. He says that one feels drawn out of the dark into the friendly intimacy of a cosy bright home. Many of us will resonate with this image as we have enjoyed the sanctity of our homes during this period of social isolation.

Robyn Sweaney was born in Melbourne and currently lives in Mullumbimby on the north coast of NSW.  Sweaney excavates the complexities of place by responding to the suburban mundane of Australian environments. Tightly refined homes and streetscapes function as repositories of identity – aesthetic incarnations of the belief structures influencing human behaviours on emotional, intellectual and spiritual levels.

Thanks to Joe Wilkinson for contributing this.

Joe has been a volunteer at the Stanthorpe Art gallery since 2002.

His work has mostly been with exhibition curation, installation and the conservation and condition reporting of the Stanthorpe Art Gallery’s valuable collection. He has chosen some works where their meaning transcends time and are very pertinent at this interesting and challenging time.

#sundayartstanthorpe

Monday 6 July

This is the final post of our 28 days series! We’ve had a blast sharing so much wonderful art with you.

It’s not unusual to encounter people standing motionless before one of Thomas Spence’s works with tears in their eyes and a smile on their lips. Tom’s ability to explore the polarities and paradoxes of life has made him one of Australia’s premier artists…

The writings of the monk Thomas Merton (1915-1968) have influenced the artist’s life and Tom believes that drawing is a meditation, an act of worship, and that the numinous can be found in moments of grace. ‘Christmas Day 1914 (God’s Truce)’ was inspired by the story of the truce in the trenches of the Western Front.  Painted in 1997 it was awarded the Blake Prize for religious art the same year.  Many of his drawings speak powerfully of hope flowering in fields of despair, courage amidst chaos, the triumph of love over fear; and prayer is undoubtedly an overarching theme. It is not the bold demand of the zealot, however, but the hesitant appeal of the doubter and resonates with the mystic in all of us.

Tom would never use these words; he uses very few words and prefers to let his works speak.  …Although now living in Stanthorpe, Tom grew up on the sheep stations ‘Branga Downs’ and ‘Culloden’ in the Muttaburra area and sees himself as a typical bushie with a deep love of the land.  …His pastoral experiences became the inspiration for such works as ‘A prayer over the lamb’ (1995) and ‘A prayer for rain’ (2005).  Butchering a sheep each week to supply the station’s meat was one of Tom’s jobs and anyone who has spent time in the Australian bush knows the unease and desperation of a drought.

Cities, too, have become the subject of some compelling works. ‘The roofs of Oxford Street, Taylor Square’ (1993) was awarded the Dobell Prize for drawing by James Fairfax in 1994.  Drawn from the rooftop of a block of flats in Flinders Street, Sydney, it is an amazing perspective on the street below and, with others such as ‘Until the end of the world’ (1991), allows us to see the world and the lives of others from Tom’s idiosyncratic aerie and join him as ‘the outsider peering in’.

Stand before Tom’s artwork but be prepared; as Thomas Merton said, “Every moment and every event of every man’s life on earth plants something in his soul.’ 

Excerpts from God, Grace, and Graphite by Chris Desgrand

Photo by Cory Rossiter.

#mondaymotivation #mondaymuse #28daysofstanthorpeart

Thanks to Mary Rofe for contributing this as part of the 28 Days of Art project.