Colourful gouache painting of the Australian bush
The location of the Old Ambulance Station community gallery, opposite Nambour Plaza, makes it so easy to just pop in when you happen to be in town with time to spare. I dropped in there yesterday to check out artist Peter Strickland's retrospective show.
The exhibition, entitled
Novospective/Retrospective, has been organised and curated by his daughter Kari, herself an artist and marriage celebrant on the Sunshine Coast. As the title suggests, it is a look back at the lifelong works of Peter, who is now in his 90s and divides his time between Brisbane and the Sunny Coast; and a showcase for his recent works.
The entrance to the gallery is dedicated to older work which has been gathered from many places including family in England.
The space closest to the entry is dedicated to a review of his art, from the earliest watercolours when he was a teenager learning to paint, pen and ink sketches, and gouache paintings up to about 2003.
The second gallery consists of recent abstracts done with acrylic on canvas, many of which were completed in the last year.
Explanatory plaques tell the story of a family trip by Land Rover around Australia in 1973. Kari recalls that Peter wanted to see how art was practised in the remote communities of Central and Northern Australia.
Despite the language barrier, they were warmly welcomed and people flocked to watch him at work. Sometimes, she says, there were so many children around him that he could not see the view he was sketching. Most of those sketches were sold at an exhibition on their return.
Untitled painting of an Australian beach scene.
Following this trip and visits to Paris galleries and viewing of German expressionist works, Peter rethought his approach to painting. His abstracts are built around colour and texture, gleaned from natural things in life.
I thought the sketchbook Visitors' Book was a great idea – you can write your visitor comments, or draw something with the crayons provided!
Illustrations of frogs for explanatory signage in Federation Park at Palmwoods.
The exhibition is now open at the Old Ambulance Station at 80 Howard St Nambour, Monday to Saturday from 10am until 3pm. The show runs until March 31st.
All photos by Greals.
