BY Brooke Pittman and Mark Whalan

The Gerringong Library and Museum (GLaM) is hosting for the final night a new art exhibition that combines the work of eight artists to showcase the eclectic talents of the local community and landscapes. The final day of the gallery is today,18 January.

The eight artists involved in the project are Carolyn Mcdonald, Elizabeth O’Donoghue, Heather Philpott, John Svinos, Kay Dibley, Kerry Suttonberg, Leonie Scott and Sue Blanchfield. 

The exhibition is a collaborative effort that demonstrates the diverse talents that these artists have to offer, each expressing their own distinctive style and approach to their art.

The works feature a diverse range of art mediums such as acrylic paints, screen printing, clay and timber work rendering the collection visually striking and conceptually beautiful. 

The artists have a demonstrated love for their community and environment, many of which draw inspiration from nature. Depictions of oceans and under the sea scenes, wildlife, sunsets and storms, and plants and flowers are all themes throughout the exhibition. 

Visitors to the gallery can immerse themselves in the diverse and captivating works of these eight talented artists. The exhibition not only celebrates local artistry but also invites the community to explore the many facets of creativity thriving within Gerringong. 

You can read more about the individual artists below:

Carolyn McDonald paints mainly in acrylics and likes to use a technique using fragments of vibrant colour, making something unique from the everyday. At the moment, her work is mainly focused on plants and flowers, and sometimes life under the sea, which is a special interest of hers.

Elizabeth O’Donoghue (Art by Elizods) works with varied media, preferring the ancient technique of hand-building with clay. Elizabeth favours the non-functional over the utilitarian object, although both are represented in her work.

Heather Philpott has a deep passion for capturing beautiful ocean moments in acrylic paintings. She loves to explore the wondrous, refreshing aquamarines of the ocean’s waters, greys of a stormy day, the secret gold and pinks of dawn, the soft hues of dusk and the incredible creatures of the underwater world.

“I love the ocean, especially the shoreline, that part that people experience near the land, and whales further offshore,” Heather told The Bugle.

“I love to paint beautiful clean moments that can become mementoes or memories, even the sense of a breath being taken in the moment. Sometimes I take a photo and transfer that same joy to the canvas. I have joy in my work and I want the viewer to have that transfer of joy.”

John Svinos creates handcrafted pieces from repurposed timber that people feel they can connect with - everyday items that serve a function. Each object is a reflection of the artist, a practical object that showcases the authenticity of the selected timbers.

Kay Dibley has loved art all her life and has found soft pastel to be a great medium to work with. She is very inspired by our beautiful area, where she has lived most of her life. Kay also loves using wildlife as subjects for her drawing.

“These include sugar gliders and landscapes, a landscape sold recently of Rose Valley to a descendant of the Millers who grew up in the valley,” Kay told The Bugle. 

“I see art as a way to create joy in the process of painting and the joy someone then gets from viewing the art"

Kerry Suttonberg paints in a variety of media and her subject matter changes continuously. She enjoys various printmaking techniques, such as etching, lithography, lino printing and collagraphs. Living so close to the beach, Kerry is often drawn to painting her local environment. After a career in art teaching, she enjoys spending time creating in her studio.

“I'm a former art teacher at Bomaderry and Kiama and work in studio prints and on collage based artworks. I love trying new themes and techniques and new materials,” Kerry said.

She plays with abstractions often in a series and related to places, with each picture having one additional abstract progression, and then having fun with the abstraction of the realism. “In one piece, I am trying to give the feeling of people on the beach and get that feeling of a hot hot day when the cooling wind suddenly arrives.”

Sue Blanchfield has a multimedia arts practice of printmaking, painting, surface design and textiles that interrogates post-colonial response to the Australian landscape.

Leonie Scott's work is non-subjective or abstract. The process of painting has very little planning, it all happens in the moment. The work is a subconscious play of impulses and intuitions that come with the process of doing. Leonie throws out a challenge to the viewer to grasp their own interpretation.

“Currently, my art is three-dimensional collages, where the viewer puts their own interpretations on the art, they respond based on their life experiences or their own experiences.

“The three-dimensional collage is for myself and I like to experiment and be intuitive without planning. Guided by intuition, sometimes I deconstruct part of a collage, and my process is a meditative thing and as I create, especially after a bad day, I throw a bit of paint around and in my happy place and hopefully the viewer gets access to that happy place.”

Leonie said “The exhibition has been a success and we will be back.”