Pop In to the Pop Up Art Exhibition: Middleton Arts & Craft Hall, South Australia Part 1
Middleton is only an hour's drive from Adelaide on the road to Port Elliot where Rowdy lives and there is much to see and do there. The town site advertises art as it is is food for the soul and the residents are developing a 3-year strategic plan to bring more art to the town.
The “Pop up Art” is found in the exhibition room at the rear of the Middleton Arts & Crafts Community Centre PopUp Shop on Goolwa Road and where local artists can exhibit their works each month.
Now meet the artists:
You know Rowdy well as he is a member of the AnArt4Life blog team and regularly collaborates in posts. Rowdy tells us in his bio that:
There are a lot of beautiful places in the world… but the South Australian & the New South Wales “Outback” landscape… with the magnificent “huge” skies & the rich “sunburnt” desert colours of the “red”…. “orange” & “purple” shadows… is what inspires me!
It’s what I know & paint!
Australia is a country with vast un-spoilt… ancient timeless landscapes to enjoy!
Add in our amazing “First Nations Indigenous History” & you have endless subjects in which to paint!
Happy Painting! - Rowdy
We will commence with a selection of paintings by Rowdy Wylie and then tomorrow we will look at Geraldine Rosser's paintings.
Rowdy paints with oil paint on timber boards, canvasses and recycled paper. And very importantly he frames his works using recycled timber. Today we are just looking at the images of the outback through Rowdy's eyes but each painting is framed.
We will commence with one of my favourite Rowdy Wylie paintings.
Rowdy's trademark is the rich colours of the landscape constrasting the deep ochres in many shades with the purples.
The white ghost gums, so indigenous to the areas Rowdy loves to paint, are almost personified in his images - appearing like figures from the past.
And the delicate touch of the light, bright green foliage reminds us that this is a country brimming with life and a history to explore.
Some of my ancestors settled along the great Murray River and so I love this painting as I know the history of the significant role this magnificent river played in the time of European settlement but more importantly for thousands of years before bringing food to indigenous communities who lived along its beautiful red cliffs.
Camels and Afghan Camaleers also played a significant role as the Europeans began to settle and open up this great country to trade. Rowdy likes to record in some of his paintings the history of the areas he visits and loves to recreate in oil.
And who is not amused and attracted to the humanlike appearance of the boab tree - again Rowdy has personified his trees to represent the significant features of the vistas he sees before him.
There is only one Australian creature more amusing than a boab tree and that is a pelican. Rowdy has captured these crazy birds most magnificently lording it over their country.
Tomorrow we will be back with a showing of the works of Geraldine Rosser - very different and very interesting.