nick glade-wright ― pro hart finalist
Published 9 July 2024
It’s a long way from Tasmania, but the talents of Handmark landscape artist, Nick Glade-Wright have been recognised in our red centre. He has just been selected as a finalist in The Pro Hart Outback Art Prize.
Strong rock formations feature prominently in Nick’s paintings, and he turns to them once more in Vanishing Point. “Having had experiences in outback Australia I am inspired by the counterbalance and interaction between the solidity and rich colours of rock formations, and how they can gradually fade into the immensity of an ephemeral sky.”
But this work also serves as a metaphor about global warming and all that is vanishing from our landscape. The award will be announced at the Broken Hill Art Gallery in August.
Image credit: Nick Glade-Wright, Vanishing Point, 2024, Oil on canvas, 122 x 152 cm
sebastian galloway ― floral treasures
Published 9 July 2024
Flowers that float through the air on a shimmering backdrop. This is Sebastian Galloway’s trademark, and he has delivered some beautiful new treasures to Handmark.
Late last year Sebastian stunned us with hyper-realistic and intricately detailed flowers painted on copper, in his Suspended in Bloom exhibition. “It is this intense detail that I am looking for in my paintings,” he explains. “It gets us to look closely at little things we would normally not notice.”
Sebastian has just dropped three small paintings into the gallery. In one, a glowing Teddy Sunflower with masses of detailed petals floats through space. In the others we gaze upon a single iris – one a vivid blue the other a translucent apricot – that “just popped up unexpectedly in my garden. These flowers are such amazing little structures. They are almost architectural in a way.”
Meanwhile, Sebastian is busy preparing for his Handmark exhibition next year, and much time is spent experimenting with new metallic surfaces on which to paint. We can’t wait to see the results.
Image credit: Sebastian Galloway, Bearded Iris, 2024, oil on copper, 47 x 47 cm
junko go ― me and my beautiful ugly white
Published 9 July 2024
The whimsical abstracts of Junko Go are not only beautiful creations but also contain beautiful messages. This is done to perfection in her Handmark exhibition – Me and My Beautiful Ugly White.
Amongst the rainbow of colours, white holds most fascination for Junko. And in these new works she explores her personal connection with this colour: “White is complex and multi-faceted. It has a myriad of shades that makes it a colour of endless possibilities, and a variety of symbolic meanings that makes it a powerful psychological tool.”
Peace is the over-arching message, and Junko’s inspiration was sparked after seeing a white flag raised in protest against war in Ukraine. “White is the colour that symbolises peace, and we all have a noble mission to promote peace. As an artist, I thought it was my mission to do something white.”
In White has an Ability that No Other Colour Has, Junko challenges us to explore complexity within apparent simplicity. While, Emptiness is the Starting Point, implores us to discard preconceived notions. “I hope my works will serve as a reminder to appreciate the simple things in life. To be kind to each other, and to care for this beautiful planet.”
melissa smith ― double win
Published 21 June 2024
Handmark favourite, Melissa Smith is still floating on Cloud Nine after taking out yet another major Tasmanian art award. She has just won the Bay of Fires Art Prize, just months after another big win.
When we speak to Melissa she is still in a state of shock. Just days earlier she stood in disbelief as her print, Tracing the Silence Lake Sorell, was announced as the winner of the Bay of Fires Prize, which comes with a $20,000 purse. “I honestly didn’t expect to win, and when my name was called out, I was so overwhelmed I just burst out into tears. Yes, it has certainly been a fairly big start to the year.”
That is an understatement. In March Melissa won the Women’s Art Prize with the judges praising her ‘delicacy and interplay of line.’ Now, time for a well-earned break: “I’m off to Adeliade to see my grandson Thomas.” We can’t argue with that!
david edgar ― explosive moment
Published 21 June 2024
The dynamic power on one explosive moment in time, as water hits a rock, is brilliantly captured on paper by David Edgar…
As his creative journey progressed, David continually pared back. “It came to a point as an artist that I just had to strip everything to its most basic form so that nothing distracts from my mark-making. For the last 15 or so years I have used charcoal and paper, and a palette of black and white with occasional touches of grey.”
A visit to Eaglehawk Neck, where he stood transfixed as enormous waves came crashing down on the rocks, inspired the piece David submitted for Handmark’s Works on Paper exhibition. “It was such a powerful and dynamic moment in nature and I knew I had to capture it on paper. But how? That was the challenge.”
That process took endless months and involved working from hundreds of photographs. But, the result is astoundingly powerful and brilliantly brings to life an explosive moment frozen in time. “The dynamic of a mark is the fundamental – how am I going to translate that?”
Image credit: David Edgar, Inner moment, 2024, Charcoal on paper, 115 x 74 cm
mona choo ― creative awakening
Published 21 June 2024
Mona Choo bursts back on the scene with an exciting new chapter in her artistic journey. Paintbrushes are packed away, and replaced by pastels and pencils as she unveils stunning new mark-making in the Works on Paper exhibition.
Mona admits the last few years have been something of a creative slump as she delved deeply into the “meaning of consciousness and nature of reality” but grappled with how to express these abstract thoughts. Then came her epiphany. “I suddenly burst through and everything came pouring out creatively.”
The result is her large-scale piece, The Geometry Thought. This is the first in a new series of abstract drawings that bring together concepts generated by Mona’s long-term research, exploring how thoughts shape our reality. She has found expression with a new artistic language that is both stunningly ethereal yet strikingly intricate. Original thoughts, pulsating with energy, burst out of a black void to create limitless potential.
Mona is known to us as a painter, but in this evolution she has replaced the canvas for paper: “I started my career as a print-maker, and I love working with paper and using my hands. I really enjoy rubbing the pastels into the paper and hearing the sound of the pencil as it scrapes across the surface.”
diane masters ― maatsuyker magic
Published 21 June 2024
The magic of Maatsuyker Island takes centre stage at Handmark’s Works on Paper exhibition, as Diane Masters brings its wind-swept isolation to life with strikingly raw hand-cut prints.
Gnarled tea-trees bent to the ground by howling winds; towering cliffs battered by an unrelenting ocean; the omnipresent lighthouse; even the local character, Charlie the Cheeky Currawong, are all markers of daily life on this tiny speck off Tasmania’s rugged southwest which was also home to Diane, and husband David. They spent two six-month stints alone on Maatsuyker as volunteer caretakers “allowing us time to experience a deep engagement with nature. To live quietly and simply,” Diane explains.
In her 14 linocut prints, Diane marvels at the power of nature. “I admire the tenacity of the humble tea tree that dominate Maatsuyker. They don’t just survive, but also thrive in this wild landscape.” She captures their beauty as we gaze through a sun-dappled tunnel of tea tree. Other flora, like the beautiful pink Heart Berry and Native Solomon Seal also make an impact. “There is always something new and flowering.”
But it’s the birds that really bring this tiny island to life. Green Rosellas, endemic to Tasmania add a splash of colour, while Charlie the Cheeky Currawong, a daily visitor, is demanding and full of character. “These linocuts express the joy that we felt everyday living on Maatsuyker.”
alex wanders ― built beauty
Published 5 June 2024
Alex Wanders sees beauty in Hobart’s often overlooked, yet iconic, structures. And his painting of a distinctly Tasmanian gazebo has drawn national attention.
Hobart’s Railway Roundabout; the Cat & Fiddle Arcade; even the diving tower of the Aquatic Centre have all been lovingly recorded by Alex’s brush “I view these structures as cultural markers.” But, it’s his latest work, Gazebo – a tribute to a “simple structure that has seen so much” in the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden’s – that is really sparking interest.
Alex is a finalist in South Australia’s Fleurieu Biennale Art Prize. And, while the gazebo’s interesting shape caught his artistic eye, drama played out under its roof is the real inspiration. “Over the years people congregated here for all sorts of joyful events from picnics to weddings.”
But there is also a dark undercurrent, felt in the long shadows of this pared-back abstract. Gazebo is also about disconnect and place. In the 1880’s we imposed this little slice of Europe into our imposing Botanic Gardens. “The same place that would once have also been an important garden for our First Nations people.”
Image credit: Alex Wanders, Gazebo, Royal Botanical Gardens, 2024, acrylic on canvas, 114 x 114 cm
clifford how ― by invite only
Published 5 June 2024
Landscape Painter Clifford How is vying for an art prize, so prestigious, entry is by invitation only. What’s more, just 24 artists have made the cut.
The Kings School in Sydney is one of Australia’s most respected, and it’s Contemporary Art Prize with a $20,000 purse is hotly contested. John Olsen and Ben Quilty are past recipients, and this year it could be Clifford. “Out of the blue I received a phone call inviting me to take part, which is a great honour. Apparently one of the organisers had seen my work in the Sydney Contemporary,” he explains.
Clifford’s landscapes of wild Tasmania have won him a legion of fans, and for the Kings Prize he returned to a vista first spotted on the Overland Track. The result is Secluded with its stunning interplay “between the warm colours of the button grass and tannin in the lake with the cool palette of the misty backdrop.”
The Kings School Art Prize is announced in early June. But in October it’s our turn, when Clifford unveils new works in his solo Handmark exhibition in the Long Gallery, where a new technique has “produced a beautiful freshness and life to my work that I have not achieved before.”
Image credit: Clifford How, Secluded, 2024, oil on linen, 153 x 178 cm
handmark accolades ― prize finalists announced
Published 5 June 2024
Accolades galore for Handmark’s talented artists. Melissa Smith joins Kaye Green as a finalist in a major Tasmanian art prize, while Helen Mueller and Martin Rek are vying for Australia’s richest landscape award.
Hot on the heels of her win in the Women’s Art Prize – where judges praised the ‘delicacy and interplay of line’ – printmaker Melissa Smith is in the running for the Bay of Fires Art Prize. This year’s theme is ‘Sanctuary’ and Melissa again turns to her sacred highlands retreat in Tracing the Silence Lake Sorell. “It is always wonderful to be acknowledged for your work,” she says.
Kaye Green is also thrilled to be a Bay of Fires finalist and her ‘sanctuary’ is an abandoned stone cottage on Hobart’s Eastern Shore “which had a tree growing inside. It doesn’t exist anymore, but I remember seeing a sketch of it once,” Kaye explains. The result is her stunningly simple black and white lithograph, Tree-House House-Tree, where both provide sanctuary to each other.
With a $100,000 purse, Hobart’s Hadley’s Art Prize attracts fierce competition, and printmaker Helen Mueller impressed judges with Walking on Bruny 4. No conventional landscape, Helen “feels her way inside this environment” where she seeks “rhythm in shades and shadows,” a concept she explores further in her Handmark exhibition, Forest Stories in October. Martin Rek is also a Hadley’s finalist, and while he currently lives in Scotland his evocative sketches echo a longing for wild Tasmania.
Image credit: Helen Mueller, Walking on Bruny no. 1, 2024, layered woodcut prints, unique state, 84 x 38 cm