SUE SMALKOWSKI | FROM LITTLE CREEKS TO WIDE OPEN SPACES

JOIN THE ARTIST AT THE OPENING: SATURDAY 18 OCTOBER, 5 - 7PM From Little Creeks to Wide Open Spaces “In all things of nature there is something of the marvellous.” Aristotle This exhibition’s title: “From Little Creeks to Wide Open Spaces” is inspired by Sue Smalkowski’s travels, painting trips with other artists, road trips and camping, all the while exploring, and marvelling at the vast Australian landscape. In every varied aspect, from the grandiose mountain ranges, golden grassy fields, or observing the gentle trickle of water through a sun-dappled creek bed, there is an element that encourages discovery and contemplation. During these journeys, Sue sketches constantly, using watercolour and gouache, and this, along with photos taken of her surrounds, form her visual notes and recollection of place. These quick studies depict the physical terrain and a memory of immersion within it. Once back home and in her studio, Sue works up these memory prompts into larger, conceptual and intricately layered, oil paintings and, more recently, accompanying ceramics. These works explore the ever-changing relationship between painting on canvas and ceramics, and place. This exhibition captures, in abstract, the wide, open spaces and the vista of unfolding ranges, powerful panoramas drawing the eye skywards. In contrast to this depiction of magnificence and sense of immensity, is a representation of a more secluded immersion in, and entanglement with, nature. Contemplating, sketching the reeds and mottled gums hugging a river or being embraced by warm rocky outcrops in the bush, listening to bush talk; its birdsong, the leaves rustled by gentle breezes or smelling the creek mist as it rises at dusk and being wrapped by an ethereal damp, prompts Sue to consider that, as Aristotle noted, there is, indeed, “in all things of nature, something of the marvellous.” These artworks are Sue’s conversation with the land, moments revealed in a complexity of colour, line, light and shadow, suggesting movement and vitality in some, and peace and calmness in others. Nature is a tapestry, woven with wonders, inviting observation, immersion and reflection. Dr Robyn Morris