John Bell, Helen Shaw & Raewyn Cardew Exhibitions at Art Design Precinct

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Posted 2013-03-17 by Julie White / Pictorial Girl ⇒ follow

Fri 15 Mar 2013 - Thu 21 Mar 2013

This headline exhibition by John Bell takes you on a journey back to the Brisbane River Floods of 2011, exploring these times in a reflective art form, presented on canvas rather than in photos.

His exhibition is titled Still Waters, Seasons of the River. So lets meet artist John Bell, and let him tell us in a few words about himself and his work.

John went to art school in earlier days, then went into sign writing to earn an income until 1996, when he was able to start painting again. He was inspired by a few artists, Ken Done in particular, due to the way he produced work with 'amazing liberty' as John realised Ken was not a great technician in art, but could produce amazing works while enjoying it so much. John was inspired and believed 'he could do this too'.

This exhibition by John reflects back to the Brisbane River Floods of 2011. Which is significant, as these floods are probably the biggest floods that Brisbane has experienced. Wandering around his suburb of Jindalee during these times, John recalls making mental visual notes while his wife took photos of what was happening around them.

John started to see beauty in the reflections of the water, rather than the ugliness seen by most. He says he started to see 'interesting vistas' in the water that he wanted to project in paintings.

This makes a great reason to come along to see John's paintings to reflect back now, after some time has past and to see a different view.

While we are reflecting back to the 2011 SE Qld Floods, you might also be interested in taking a look at the Flashbook, SE QLD Flood Event Photographic Book .

Available now at Art Design Precinct, there are just 4 books remaining. These beautifully presented photographic books represent a historic record of this event. Professionally produced and printed, each book had a limited print run for the purpose of raising money for the Disaster Relief Appeal in 2011 (now closed) . Hence the limited number remaining.

Flashback presents work from 10 photographers, was produced totally by donated time, includes a foreword from 'Anna Bligh, and aerial photography from 'Nearmap'.

It is $69 to purchase and you can preview the book online here at Flashback , before viewing the display copy at Art Design Precinct.

Moving back to the Exhibition Spaces at Art Design Precinct, currently exhibiting until 21 March is Artist Helen Shaw with her work in the loading bay area. (the downstairs space)
This is a separate space at the same premise and Helen presents a varied and diverse range of work. So diverse in fact perhaps you might think the works belong to a creator that has a 'split personality'. (just to add some humour to the description)

Lets meet Helen Shaw and hear a few words about herself and her presentation.

Once Helen's kids grew up, she was able to start creating and playing around like artists do. Helen entered a competition at Padua College with her painting of the swimmer, (see below) , which set her up for this exhibition as it was part of the 'prize'.

Wining any prize always provides a great boost to an artists creativity, however Helen also struck 'gold' as she pre-sold one of her paintings on her Facebook page. "Congratulations Helen".

Lastly, lets meet Raewyn Cardew who is showing her work in one of the smaller studio spaces at this premise.

Raewyn is presenting some entirely different art in her hired studio space. Intricate detail presented with her tools of graphite and gouache. It's easy to see her passion in the detail of her work. When asked about her inspiration for her creations, Raewyn refers to her 'love of tattoos'. The penny dropped when she mentioned this, as now I see it. It is truly beautiful. Colours, intricacy and design. It's certainly different.

If you are inspired, you must hurry to view these works. Best to make sure you get there on or before Thursday 20th of March as on the 21st the artists start to 'download'.

Just a quick mention, upcoming at Art Design Precinct.
Watch out for Tamara Armstrong appearing in the next exhibition called 'Empowerment'. A week long event with a special day on Saturday, 23rd March from 3pm to 8pm, during which time Tamara will shave her head, as a fundraising for the Leukemia Foundation.

Lots of work has gone into this event and for the few 'tit bits' of information the owners of the gallery shared with me, it sounds like lots of fun for a great purpose and you should 'be there.

Please check the Facebook page so as not to miss out. View their webpage here.