Launching on July 4 at Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery in Gladstone, 'Change' is a new exhibition by artist and teacher Katherine Ackland, which interprets humans' relationship with the rapidly changing landscapes in which we live and work.
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The exhibition runs until July 16 and guests are invited to meet the artist on Saturday, July 6 between 2pm and 4pm for complimentary Champagne and nibbles.
The exhibition 'Change' includes found object sculptures, paintings and drawings, that address in the our ever changing and adapting natural world.
Katherine says her own paintings challenge, with the use of alternative materials but also provide an opportunity to reassess and interpret our relationship and emotions aroused by the natural world.
She says her paintings, often imagined and outlined in situ, exploit her amazing understanding of colour in the landscape, using glowing vibrant blues, purples, olive greens and signature magenta highlights beside vintage fabric and cement. The sculptures are constructed of fencing wire, fishing line and vintage ceramics and silverware, and relics of the past found, left by past generations in the landscape.
About the artist
Born in Cootamundra Katherine was the daughter of school teachers and often relocated from one town to another. Most Influential to the growth of her powerful connection with the landscape, were her years spent in Broken Hill. At this time, she was experimenting with different ways to represent outback life and environment.
Artist Pro Hart lived just around the corner and Tom Offord was a close friend. Holidays were spent in shearers' quarters in the Flinders Ranges, Leigh Creek, Tibooburra, the Menindee Lakes, White Cliffs and Mootwingee.
Later Katherine studied art as an exchange student in Lincoln, Nebraska taking the opportunity to visit the endowed galleries in New York during holidays.
In Europe she sometimes paid her way drawing reproductions on the footpath in Vienna or selling water colours on the steps of the Parthenon.
Katherine continued her interest in interpreting her experiences of the natural environment during droughts, working on sheep stations at Girilambone and Coolabah. Watching the goannas, galahs, brolgas and the crows adapt to circumstances. Katherine's ability to catch the essence of the birds developed rapidly. Later living on a vineyard in Griffith she experienced a lush artificial landscape. She says these experiences are at the core of her work and the seed of her strong connection to the natural world.
Macleay Valley Community Art Gallery is located at 5 Kinchela Street Gladstone and is open between 10.30am to 4pm Thursday to Sunday and is staffed by volunteers and artists.
