Thank You TarraWarra 

On the weekend we braved fog and rain and hills and potential toddler windy-road-induced-vomiting to adventure to Healesville, home of the TarraWarra Museum of Art.

I wanted to check out the Archibald finalists.

 I started seeing the 90-year-old Archies when I was 13, but had to miss it last year due to Mummyness and distance.  So I was excited when I learnt that some brilliant person had decided to tour it regionally. Thank you whom ever you are and thank you TarraWarra for being such a wonderful host.

This is the second time I have visited this gallery and I love it: I love the drive there; love the setting, the rammed earth building and the huge windows framing the rolling green views and the coffee! (Sorry there is a shortage of good coffee in my hills). I also love that each time I have visited, the people working at the gallery have been friendly, smiling, easy and hospitable. They made my family and I feel quite at home as they have not a whiff of aloofness- it’s a lovely touch to what is for me a treasured experience.

Of course all of these things are merely the decorations to icing on my arty farty cake that is the Archibald prize.

 I love this competition because of it’s history, of it’s occasional controversy, because of my memories of pockfaced, teenaged summers spent in the free air conditioning of the National Gallery and because every year the Archibald prize thrusts Art into the spotlight.

Now to the exhibition- I’ll admit to a selfish moment of disappointment when I saw the crowds but the not-so-selfish other side of this coin went “wohoo” the Archibald will be back next year! And kudos to gallery for managing the level of people in with the paintings which were hung so professionally and with a flow that took in account size, style and approach. Now of course there were some images I didn’t like, some that disappointed and others that left me puzzled in unpleasant way but that is the nature of this exhibit and being the positive type of woman I am I am gonna focus on my personal standouts.

I adored the pink portrait of John Coetzee by Adam Chung (winner of the peoples choice).  I loved the scale, the expression but most of all the brush strokes! Whilst I admire highly realistic, technically superb, almost photographic paintings, (how can you not), I am realising that I am drawn to texture and this had it in controlled bucket loads.

I was also very excited to see a Del Katherine Barton in the flesh as I love her creations. Mother, (a portrait of Cate) was striking, ethereal, detailed and strong. The layers of detail, the decorative elements, the dots and clamour on the canvas, the interplay between controlled patterning and loose embellishment, her water logged eyes and gorgeous fingers: so much to love, such a thrill. However, if I dare, I have one taste based criticism of Dell’s work and that is that I am starting to find the style and motifs repetitive, a bit same samey from piece to piece….. There I said it, i criticised one of my artistic idols. This realisation did one thing for me though: it answered last weeks question about focussing on one particular style- I cannot do it because I appreciate versatility, have a short attention span (demonstrated by my ever changing hair colour and staccato chip, chop and change conversation topic style). Yes rather then build one style  I do believe that investigating and exploring different techniques will eventually come together in some rather exciting work. Well, that’s the plan.

Ok and now for my star of the show. I agree with the judges Ben Quilty’s portrait of his friend and mentor Margaret Olley was ahh, sigh, really really good. It grabbed my breath by its thick painted fists and my eyes danced with joy- It was so much better then any reproduction I had viewed- where to start? Well, I saw it across the room and was enraptured by the gentle femininity and the conviction of both the subject and the artist’s syle. I saw and loved simple casting of the likeness in thick broad brushtrokes. He has painted Olley with a direct and firm tenderness caught in his strong wide style, her wise lived in wet eyes her aging skin and small mouth. I was drawn to the large canvas and amazed at how this tight, effective construction became smears of thick paint that hung in sculptural wads on the canvas as you got closer to the work. Hammering home my love of texture. I was amazed, how on earth did he manage it: to capture that firm likeness so well whilst not being able to see the whole picture when close? I’d love to see footage of him working so I could learn, (c’mon Artscape, Artnation, Anyone? ) and I’d love to see more of his work.

Here are a few others I thought might deserve a mention; there is the squint in Tom Mcbeth’s  portrait of Jessica Watson (the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world). The glare and the squint was so real I got a sense of the sitter as well as the artist. The same effect was found in the portrait of Hugo Weaving by Nicholas Harding, though in the case of this painting the description occurred with a lounging posture rather then a squint. And finally, the miniature self portrait by Natasha Bieniek was stunning in it’s tinsy technicality and expression squeezed into the size of two stamps: quite amazing.
And that is a wrap folks, until next year, if you’d like a bit of a looksy at and about the paintings this link can help:

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/exhibitions/archibald-wynne-sulman-prizes-2011/finalists/archibald-finalists/

Cheers y’all, I’ve been inspired into some (self) portraiture: it is a work in progress.

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