"Colours of Australia" Exhibition

 April 18th – 30th 2023
 
“Colours of Australia” is an exhibition by four local artists, myself included, from the Moreton Bay Regional Area and the Sunshine Coast.  Celebrating all things Australian and filling the gallery with a burst of colour. Join Ron Bryant, Karen King, Tricia Taylor and Jo-Ann Middlebrough as we take you on a journey of our travels through Australia. All of us are avid plein air painters who love to travel with their art. From Uluru to the MacDonnell Ranges, the Blue Mountains to our amazing coastline. The outback ochres and the ocean turquoise will make an amazing mix of colour and light in this exhibition. Tricia, Jo-Ann, Ron and myself all have an impressionistic style of realism that merge to make a cohesive exhibition.  While the work will include a mixture of oils, watercolours, and pastels it will make for a great variety of mediums, styles and techniques used.
The Exhibition runs for two weeks. Opening on the 18th of April and closes on the 30th of April at the Bribie Community Art Centre, Matthew Flinders Art Gallery. 191 Sunderland Drive Banksia Beach. The Gallery is open 9am -4pm daily – closed Mondays. 
Please join us at the official opening, 2pm 22nd April 2023 with light refreshments and nibbles. The exhibition will also be officially opened by Deborah Eddy, who is also a local Moreton Bay artist and current Doctor of Visual Art Candidate, Queensland College of Art.   
 
Ron Bryant My passion is mainly painting Landscapes and Seascapes and I love being surrounded by nature.  I am truly blessed to live in a beautiful part of Queensland which is both rural and located by the sea, so my backyard is always full of opportunities to paint.
 
The Australian landscape has always excited me with its outstanding beauty on one hand, and its wild and everchanging patterns on the other…..both enrich my soul.
 
In my paintings I endeavour to capture the light, energy, and atmosphere that I am seeing and feeling and hopefully this emotion is shared when viewing my art.
 
Nowadays I rarely paint from a reference photograph as I like to experience the connection with nature by note taking and observations, then taking my thoughts and sketches back to the studio to paint  
 
Karen King This collection of my art reflects the diversity of subject and style in which I paint and teach. My paintings depict my love of light and colour whilst working in a semi-impressionistic style. I love to travel both here in Australia and overseas and a recent trip to the Red Centre set my creativity on fire. The ochres, reds, oranges, and yellows coupled with the sage green of the flora was truly breathtaking. I find beauty in sometimes the simplest of scenes.
Light and colour has sent me down the rabbit hole of creativity only to emerge more joyful and creative and ready to take on more artistic journeys.
I was once asked “what do you like to paint?” My answer was simply “the light and colour”.
Light both intrigues and fascinates me, it can be subtle, or it can be brilliant. Light gives energy to my painting subjects no matter how simple that subject may be and draws us out from the darkness into its caress. It guides us, comforts us, and bedazzles our senses.
Light gives the universe form, texture, and life, and without light there is no colour.
It can be a simple light shaft falling on a doorway, the light caressing a child's face or the dappled sunshine descending through the trees in a forest, for me paintings without light and colour has no stimulation of the senses.
The light in Australia has a unique quality about it and capturing it at its best can sometimes be challenging. Early mornings and late afternoons are optimum as the light becomes saturated in the middle of the day and washes out a lot of subtle colours.
 
“Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” Claude Monet
 
Art makes my heart sing…..
Karen
Tricia Taylor.  This exhibition is full of memories from my travels throughout Australia. I find painting en plein air (meaning in the outdoors) both challenging and rewarding. There is something special about painting from life in the light of day. You see colour more richly and tones more deeply.
My purpose it to shine a light into the community through art. It brings clarity, hope, and unveils our path. The moment between night and day as light fills the sky with colour, this Kairos moment, brings me deep joy. I aim to share the light of God that lives in me and is revealed in creation into the lives of others to bring just a little more joy into their hearts.