Ian Gawler art show

After all these years my own artworks are to be involved in my first ever exhibition! And also for the first time, my pictures will be offered for sale!

There will be an opening night – Friday 15th November, however, most of the pictures can be purchased now via the internet. Some of the paintings are quite special – like those done during my recovery or are of places where meditation retreats have been held. All are in oil on good quality canvas and most are framed – by me.

So this week, a little on each of the pictures plus their images and a little of my art history, plus news of the meditation workshops Ruth and I will present in Queensland over the next few weeks, but first

           Thought for the week

If we could say it we would. 
What wants to be said is unsayable - and unthinkable too. 
That is why we make music, we dance, we paint and write poetry. 

Language and words are for mundane things 
Like shopping and running a country. 

The arts are a way to impart to each other 
The wordless core of experience: 
They are nothing short of stepping stones 
To the heaven hidden here on earth.

                                 Rashid Maxwell

As a teenager, I always wanted to be a veterinarian – and so it was. Yet the arts always held a special place in my heart. I held great admiration for artists and writers and actually yearned to do both.

At school I was fortunate to be accepted into veterinary science at the end of year 12. However, I was very young and at the school I attended, rather than taking gap years, many boys did a second year 12 – or matriculation as we called it.

So in my second year, I took English Literature and Art. What a delight! Probably my favourite year of study ever. In art we had two professional artists as our teachers… the wonderful Ronald Miller and the quiet, unassuming and highly talented Des Norman (of the Daisy Bates series of paintings).

That year provided a framework of both theory and technique and I struggled through to achieve a fabulous basic pass mark! Since then my art has surfaced in fits and starts. It was taken up seriously for a few years following my cancer diagnosis then relapse.




This first picture was painted

from the veranda of the house

I convalesced in near Melton

- AUTUMN LIGHT KIPPEN ROSS

Next big influence was Larry LeShan, the real founder of psycho-oncology and author of Cancer as a Turning Point. Met Larry at a conference in the USA and became good friends – a delightful, insightful maverick of a man.

Anyway, Larry challenged me… Said if I did not have half a day to put aside for myself each week I was missing something really important. So I came home and enrolled in the art class my sister Sue was attending. This was with Peter Churcher – a great painter of figures, classically trained and a wonderful teacher.

So these next 3 come from those days…






A still life with grapefruit that I really like :

GRAPEFRUIT

Another still life, simply named STILL LIFE












And a model from the classes : THE MODEL AT REST











In recent years there was quite a lull in painting up until last year when I joined Anne Esposito's weekly art classes; again with my sister. Anne is a great artist in her own right and an excellent teacher while the group includes many highly talented artists. We will all have works on display and for sale at the exhibition.

So this has led to a series from times spent around Alice Springs, including a picture from a perspective above Hamilton Downs where we held 7 Meditation in the Desert retreats :

HAMILTON DOWNS

















NAMATJIRA GHOST GUM
is of the last of the 2 famous ghost gums
West of Alice Springs that were
a favourite subject for Albert Namatjira.
Sadly, both are now gone...

SPINIFEX MACDONNELL RANGES
– such a beautiful part of the world…











RAIN SHOWER MACDONNELL RANGES















And this one from the Eastern Macdonnell Ranges : GHOST GUM









And of course, Uluru – no longer climbable
and here under an amazing sky as it is so often…

ULURU EVENING

(Note: this one is not framed although it says it is on the website)









Finally, a moment of reflection caught in WA
at the aptly named Green’s Pool.
(Note: this one too is not framed
although it says it is on the website)







All the pictures are featured on my art group's website - LINK HERE 

The photos on the website are good indications, but not always true as you might expect… For most of the pictures above the frames do not appear and there are 2 without frames.

ANYONE INTERESTED IN SALES PLEASE CONTACT:
Email: theartistsgroup1@gmail.com. 

If you are local enough and would like to attend the art show, it includes works from the art group I am involved with. There will be an opening on Friday 15th November at 5pm, and then more showing Saturday 16th from 10am to 2pm. For more details of the exhibition, including the venue, or to attend the opening, please email Info@insighthealth.com.au.

If you have questions re any of the works, please do direct those to me via Info@insighthealth.com.au. as well.

Hope to see many of you at the exhibition – this is quite a buzz for me… Something quite different


Plus news of our coming events...