Friday 10 February 2017

Five women artists from Western Australia


Title: Night Passage
Artist: Shelly Cowper
Etching on Paper

Gwen John's art, in its quietude and its subtle colour relationships, stands in contrast to her brother's far more vivid and assertive work. Though she was once overshadowed by her popular brother, critical opinion now tends to view Gwen as the more talented of the two.[42] Augustus himself had predicted this reversal, saying "In 50 years' time I will be known as the brother of Gwen John


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwen_John




I have always liked the English Artist Gwen Johns a stunning painter and the aforementioned quotes for me is true but now there is another group of women moving out of their comfort zone and now exhibiting in Japan  (like Gwen Johns went to Paris) and risk in life and art is necessary its seems to learn and create. 




Audience 2 Dogs Art Space

Currently on show at 2 Dogs Art Space, Akashi - Japan there are five Western Australian Women Artists being Pippa Tandy Fine Art Photographer, Chelle Bourne painter,  Connie Petrillo artist/ curator,  Shelley Cowper printmaker, Lynne Norton painter/printmaker, Cynthia Ellis Painter. 

This current exhibition by these aforementioned artists from Western Australia reveals a strong commitment to praxis to theory, these images are not just decorative but resonate a passion that only comes from a long and sustained period in studio work that resolves particular ideas that they have discovered within there chosen motifs. 


Getting the artworks ready


For example, for Shelley Cowper its the sailing she did around Australia in a yacht and being on night watch, for Connie Petrillo it is the relationship between the female and societal memories, Chelle Bourne it's the historical relationship of the delicate needle work designs and textures that her grandmother used to do, Pippa Tandy lives and breathes with her camera, its now an extension of her being and she shoots motifs almost spontaneously, Cynthia Ellis its about paint and Lynne Norton's prints  are from her observations  at opera, akin to Degas.

 Many thanks to the artists for participating all the way from Western Australia