Great works, but diversity not immediately obvious.
First published in the 10 April 2015 edition of the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen.
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If your first priority when seeing an art exhibition is great artwork, then this exhibition – and Yarragon’s Station Gallery in general – will satisfy. If you are looking for works that fill the exhibition’s brief, you might find Diversity lacks, artistically, what was promised.
Featuring five excellent local artists – Helen Fox, Heather Glover, Lynne Hall, Gael Smith and Min Weggelaar – the exhibition shows the talent of the exhibitors across a number of mediums, but predominantly in oils and pastels.
A number of striking pieces by Heather Glover show an interesting jump from the more traditional works, mixing oils with collage elements to great effect. Glover’s pair of paintings featuring well-dressed women use mixed media in a suitably subtle and effective way.
Landscapes and animals – especially dogs and livestock – dominate in the exhibition as pastel and oil paintings. A mosaic bird by Helen Fox, a mosaic-framed painting of chickens also by Fox, and a mosaic table provide the most significant diversity in form in the exhibition.
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Ms Fox told the Warragul & Baw Baw Citizen the diversity was in the backgrounds of the artists, not necessarily the works produced, and the theme was reached out of necessity.
“Simply, we were having an exhibition and we had to come up with a name, and Min came up with Diversity which, well, we are from quite diverse backgrounds,” Ms Fox said.
“Although I’m on a farm now, I was involved with racehorses for years, and Heather was a social worker or some such thing before.
“We are quite diverse in our interests and in our ways of making money.”
Ms Fox is herself diversifying artistically.
“Mosaics are relatively new for me, it’s just a move away from painting that I’m enjoying,” she said.
Foreign landscapes and towns from European countries make a nummer of appearances in the art-works shown in Diversity, including works by Ms Fox from a trip to Greece.
The presence of foreign scenes is slightly unusual for the Yarragon gallery.
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“I don’t think it is that common,” Ms Fox said.
“Mostly because I think local works sell better than stuff from overseas, I would think.”
Other exceptions to the landscapes-and-animals rule include a pastel painting of the Swan Nebula by exhibition organiser Min Weggelaar.
The exhibiting artists all belong to a Warragul arts group.
DIVERSITY
The Station Gallery, Princes Way, Yarragon
Until 27 April. Open Wednesday to Sunday
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