Drawing Room - Fleur MacDonald

Of all of the hats that Fleur MacDonald wears, including being founder of Sixtoeight.net she has always been first and foremost an accomplished artist.

Her latest show at the drawing room once again proves this with her ordinary transformed into the extraordinary view of the world.  She shines the spotlight on the humble and shows us the beauty there within.

As a former house painter she has found an affinity for these objects, a carpenter’s pencil, a set of pliers or a painter’s brush…..always things that have a subliminal connection with her that are a trigger for a more complex consequence.  Having of late shown at King on William, James Dorahy Project space and producing her first non objective piece at Artspace in an Ian Milliss curated show Fleur has approached this new show with an armory of disparate elements which she orchestrates seamlessly into a cohesive exhibition.  Photography, pure abstraction and figurative painting make up this body of work that is never predictable or dull.  They are images fused with familiarity presented with an at times a quirky humour (look for the dropped pencil on the railway platform and the appearance of Giorgio Pengee, the Sixtoeight penguin mascot) and an assured painter’s hand.

The dominate subject matter is the railway platform at Faulconbridge.  It is a metaphorical witness to Fleur’s quest to resolve a creative life with the necessity of working for a living.  Those of us who have watched her plight of ungodly times spent on this platform have noticed her compulsion to visually document it.

The platform paintings form the centrepiece of the exhibition.  The expertly rendered hedges and safety lines on highly varnished wooden panels with a colour field background show an innate sense of composition and design.  The sharp spatial perspective used against a flat colour background creates an interesting tension and is a reminder that these are contemporary artworks and not merely illustrations.

This show runs until 5th October……… I highly recommend this slice of life exhibition that evokes the beginnings of a journey which can be open to interpretation from each viewer’s point of view and experience.

Glenn Locklee
Guest Reviewer

2nd September - 5th October 2014
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