The Last Fleet Exhibition by Gayle Reichelt

Talented visual artist Gayle Reichelt is presenting her latest exhibition 'The Last Fleet' at the Arts Centre, Gold Coast City Gallery from 6th February to 20th March 2016.

This special art exhibition will showcase Gayle's latest collection of paintings, which have been inspired by weathered shipwrecks.

This unique series features stunning detailed imagery of abandoned ships, which have been left to the mercy of natural forces and the elements of weather and time.

These once imposing and awe-inspiring structures once stood majestic but are now forsaken, showing evidence of erosion, mould and decay as well as damage inflicted by mankind. Yet, despite this sense of loss, a strange beauty remains.

In her own words, Gayle explains "nature seeks revenge in entropy by rightfully returning these objects to their constituent elemental dust" and through this series, she aims to "explore the paradoxical and beguiling beauty found in the surface of these "skeletons" of our throwaway society."

Gayle's current interests were forged in the early stages of her career. During her Honours year at La Trobe University Bendigo in 1996, a recurring theme in Gayle's work was reviewing the fate of abandoned human manufactured constructs in the natural environment.

The theme began in her second year of her Bachelor study with the use of animal skulls, which were superimposed on humans to portray the superficialities of society, and progressed to abandoned farm machinery.

Today Gayle is a member of the Australia Society of Marine Artists, a group dedicated to supporting and promoting marine art in Australia. Her work is ever evolving as she continues to embrace new technologies and mediums, as well as contemporary and traditional techniques.

Gayle in particular is fascinated in texture and her latest works feature the process of encaustic painting. The process consists of molten beeswax and damar resin, which is mixed with oil pigments for colour, and is fused after application into a continuous layer and fixed to a support (usually wood) with heat.

You can view 'The Last Fleet' collection in person at The Arts Centre, Gold Coast City Gallery, from 6th February to 20th March 2016.

Entry is FREE and opening hours are as follows:

Monday - Friday 10.00am to 5.00pm

Saturday & Sunday and Public Holidays 11.00am to 5.00pm

For more information on this upcoming exhibition, please visit www.gaylereicheltart.com