The best of Australian Aboriginal art is much sought after internationally.
Indigenous art from the Central Desert, the Kimberleys, Arnhem Land and the Torres Strait regions is well known, but the art from Far North Queensland is only recently finding its place on the world stage.
Of particular interest is the work from the “Lockhart River Gang” a group of young, energetic painters. Named a “gang” from their origins as a “work for the dole” group, these aboriginal artists have received much encouragement, training and public funding.
Well promoted and provided with brilliant exhibition opportunities, the dozen or so young people have developed a well-deserved reputation for excellence.
Rosella Namok, Fiona Omeenyo, Samantha Hobson and Silas Hobson are amongst the best known of the artists, who live in a very isolated area, about eight hundred kilometres north of Cairns.
They mostly paint on canvas with acrylic but are also competent printmakers, producing either screenprints or linoprints at the art centre at Lockhart River. Amongst their North Queensland teachers have been Anne and Ron Edwards and Arone Meeks.
Women tribal elders from the community still produce baskets made from lawyer cane, palm, paper bark, pandanus or grass as well as necklaces from shells and seeds.
Living at Mossman, close to Port Douglas, is the well respected elder, weaver, Wilma Walker. Hers is one of the most traditional types of aboriginal art still being kept alive.
Although Wilma teaches the weaving of beautifully shaped baskets, made from the rare black palm, she regrets that few of the younger generation is interested in such a labour intensive pastime.
Born at Mossman Gorge, Wilma remembers the men of her family making fish traps and bi-cornal baskets from lawyer cane. Carried by a vine strap across the forehead, the baskets were used for carrying yams, fish and fruit. The Deeral community still makes these on occasions but the art seems to have died out in other centres.
In Cairns, Arone Meeks works as a sculptor, painter and printmaker, making commentary on social issues pertaining to aboriginality. Along with other graduates from the Cairns Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual arts course, he is active in Cairns art circles and exhibits regularly.
One such TAFE graduate is Norman Miller (Munganbana) who comes from the mountainous, rainforest region inland from Cairns (his name “mountain water” derives from the many lakes and waterfalls in the green and fertile Tablelands area of his homeland).
Norman is a painter (he won the Sheraton Mirage Open Prize in 2006), who tells ancestral stories in paint, but who also produces charming lino prints of animals of the region – the shy platypus, fresh-water turtles, lizards and pythons which inhabit the fringes of deep volcanic lakes.
A potter/sculptor of great note is Thancoupie. Originally from an area near Weipa, Thancoupie is highly respected as an artist and teacher of her people. Her work is in many prestigious collections.
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Tropical Glass Art sparkles in Australia!
Glass art in Australia and especially Tropical Glass Art is a relatively recent art form, the result of the introduction of the subject into a number of tertiary courses in the country over the last thirty years or so and influenced by a small number of glass artists from Europe.
In January 2003 my daughters and I travelled to Perth in Western Australia to attend the bi-annual Ausglass conference held there. That conference discusses glass trends in conjunction with members’ exhibitions.
We wanted to find out more about Australian glass in order to promote it in our gallery, Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art, if we thought that it was special enough.
Well, it was fantastic! We were blown away!
The skill and variety of the work really impressed us and subsequently we were able to stock the work of such leading Australian glass artists as Nick Mount, Ola and Marie Hoglund, Marc Grunseit, Meg Caslake, Tim Shaw and Roger Buddle.
Their work was added to beautiful Tropical Glass Art pieces by Queensland artists such as Judith Bohm-Parr, Sean O’Donaghue and Terry Eager.
There’s something about glass art that seems to suit the tropics. Perhaps it is the vibrancy and clarity of the colours… pure colour held in suspension…the emphasis then becoming form…and movement… light captured…
Whether it is blown, cast, fused, slumped, made into weathered or sparkling beads or used more pictorially in leadlighting, glass has a translucency, fragility and almost spiritual quality which has wide appeal.
Of recent times, Ola and Marie Hoglund have established a studio and home in the rainforest north of Port Douglas. They spend part of the year there and the rest of their time in New Zealand. Renowned for their collectible rainforest graal forms, they produce one off pieces reflecting aspects of the tropics.
Judith Bohm-Parrhas branched out to include glass jewellery in her repertoire…beautiful hand-made glass beads meld with jewels of dichroic glass…irresistible.
Enthralled by Judy's recent exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery, a friend was delighted to later purchase a piece that the artist herself had been wearing!
The best of our Tropical North Queensland artists produce "one off" original Tropical Glass Art pieces, from wearable art to contemplative poems of light and form, all of extremely high quality.
In January 2003 my daughters and I travelled to Perth in Western Australia to attend the bi-annual Ausglass conference held there. That conference discusses glass trends in conjunction with members’ exhibitions.
We wanted to find out more about Australian glass in order to promote it in our gallery, Port Douglas Gallery of Fine Art, if we thought that it was special enough.
Well, it was fantastic! We were blown away!
The skill and variety of the work really impressed us and subsequently we were able to stock the work of such leading Australian glass artists as Nick Mount, Ola and Marie Hoglund, Marc Grunseit, Meg Caslake, Tim Shaw and Roger Buddle.
Their work was added to beautiful Tropical Glass Art pieces by Queensland artists such as Judith Bohm-Parr, Sean O’Donaghue and Terry Eager.
There’s something about glass art that seems to suit the tropics. Perhaps it is the vibrancy and clarity of the colours… pure colour held in suspension…the emphasis then becoming form…and movement… light captured…
Whether it is blown, cast, fused, slumped, made into weathered or sparkling beads or used more pictorially in leadlighting, glass has a translucency, fragility and almost spiritual quality which has wide appeal.
Of recent times, Ola and Marie Hoglund have established a studio and home in the rainforest north of Port Douglas. They spend part of the year there and the rest of their time in New Zealand. Renowned for their collectible rainforest graal forms, they produce one off pieces reflecting aspects of the tropics.
Judith Bohm-Parrhas branched out to include glass jewellery in her repertoire…beautiful hand-made glass beads meld with jewels of dichroic glass…irresistible.
Enthralled by Judy's recent exhibition at Cairns Regional Gallery, a friend was delighted to later purchase a piece that the artist herself had been wearing!
The best of our Tropical North Queensland artists produce "one off" original Tropical Glass Art pieces, from wearable art to contemplative poems of light and form, all of extremely high quality.
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