Gallery 47 - Fabulous Fakes

One of our favourite haunts is Gallery 47 in Louee Street, Rylstone which also is home to Coffee Concrete – the place to go if you want some of the best food and coffee in the area.  It’s also run by the wonderful Georgie and Alex who are such great locals.  Being across the road from our Convent & Chapel Wool Shop, makes it a regular drop-in spot for us.

Every month the Gallery hosts a new exhibition which we always visit – we usually try to get along to the openings if possible.  This month’s exhibition has a twist.  Called ‘Fabulous Fakes’, it’s a display of wonderful old masters recreated by the talented David Wallace, another local.

I’ve seen David’s work a few times and was disappointed to miss purchasing ‘Lady with an Ermine’ in the past and this time missed out on Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring”, however managed to pick up my first Renoir, ‘Two Sisters on the Terrace’.  Gemma, on the other hand, stuck with the Australian art and scored her first Tom Roberts, ‘Bailed Up’.

It’s a fun display and sure to amuse cafe-goers for the month.  Definitely worth a look, and incredibly good value for a wonderful piece to hang on your wall – and certainly a talking point.  I may take another peek later in the month, just in case the Mona Lisa is still there…

Margot Palk

1st September - 30th September 2015
conventandchapel.com
coffeeconcrete.com.au

Blue Mountains Cutlural Centre - Locust Jones

‘A week in the life of the world’ grandstands the awesomeness of Locust Jones.

On entry to the vast cavity of the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre we are slapped in the face with fierce intention.  Dead smack in the middle of a cold Katoomba winter we were immediately warmed with the visually bold and colourful onslaught.

If you were marooned on a desert island for the past year then you would have been brought up to speed with the international news throughout this vivid exhibition.  This whole show is beyond words, the intensity of the graphic reflection of planes dropping out of the sky, wars that never end and weekly catastrophes are thrown at us with wild inhibition.

It’s seriously intense but at the same time it’s visually captivating.  Stories beautifully and masterly interwoven throughout each piece, recorded for prosperity and the perfect archive for when the Internet drops off the planet.

Fleur MacDonald

25th July - 6th September 2015
bluemountainsculturalcentre.com.au

Braemar Gallery - Corinne Loxton, Carola Rivera & Dot Wilkin

Dot Wilkin is a lover of expressionist colour and it so shows in her current ‘grab the bull by the horns’ work for ‘Of Earth and Air’… Letting herself absorb the essence of the rugged iridescent landscapes of the River Barwon, Fowlers Gap and Wilcannia, exploring her perception and exaggerating the opalesque of the colours at her feet.

An intrepid explorer of radiant hue’s, Dot has proven her ability to playfully play with colour, to open our eyes to what really is the beautiful harshness of the outback.  Each work in this series follows a brilliant and liberating narrative of colour, exposing a deep sense of bold exuberance and a celebration of colour.

The language of colour runs fluent throughout the gallery spaces from Dot’s boldness to a slightly more reserved reflection by Carola Rivera set of works which created snapshots of delicate detailed bird life set against fauxesque backgrounds which flowed seamlessly into the majestic sweeping bilious cloudscapes of Corinne Loxton.

An immediate affinity to these serene works of Corinne’s, a much needed quiet reflection which I found enveloping, relaxing and ethereal.  Rolling landscapes in luscious greens set against shimmering sunsets and not just in the obligatory rectangle.  Views of fluffy clouds from the Eagle’s nest through the tree tops blowing in the wind.

A great introduction for me to the Braemar Gallery which was built in 1892 by James Hunter Lawson and making me walk a bit further down Macquarie Road.

Fleur MacDonald

31st July - 23rd August 2015
www.bmcc.nsw.gov.au
www.corinneloxton.com.au