Australian Art Prints- Gallery Moonfleet-Sarah Willard Gray

Australian Art Prints- Gallery Moonfleet-Sarah Willard Gray

Some comments on my PhD exhibition at the University of Wollongong 2015

The jagged landscape of Australia sprawl across the walls, warm tones evoking feelings of comfort which are abruptly sliced through by harsh black lines and snaking rivers. Some reach almost from floor to ceiling, inviting you to lose yourself in an abstract view of the Southern Highlands. Behind the imposing canvases is a warm-faced woman who is easily dwarfed by her creations. This woman is Sarah Willard Gray.
The artworks are strongly influenced by the Bong Bong Common or Bayoong-Bayoong, an Aboriginal site within the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. The paintings which adorn the walls have the warm and texture of earth and the soil of the Bong Bong Common is mixed with the paint in each.
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Some of the best art throughout history has been born from rich context. History provides a background, a sweeping narrative from which you can create a lush landscape.
Mapping is a shared form of knowledge and therefore provides a common ground between different human cultures. Each piece of Sarah Willard Gray's art is sumptuous with organic beauty that truly captures the majesty of our great Southern land.
In these artworks I am not only painting the landscape, she informs, but I am also reacting to individual experiences that took place in the early colonial history of this cultural landscape.
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