Artists ALENA KENNEDY and DR FRIEDERIKE KRISHNABHAKDI VASILAKIS will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 18th November 2pm- 3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

ALENA KENNEDY has been a practicing, independent visual artist since 1999. After completing her Creative Arts degree at Wollongong University in 2007, Alena decided to focus on the local Wollongong and Illawarra community. This resulted in her co-founding the Illawarra Association for the Visual Arts in 2009, which today has over 40 members and is a vibrant and thriving group of contemporary artists.

Alena paints with acrylics and the natural world is usually her inspiration. Focusing on common-place aspects of nature, she conveys a sense of their presence and of her own feeling of connectedness with all life. Her observations of the ‘small’ provide her with glimpses into larger patterns and processes of the cosmos. Her personal insights into nature have been translated into luminous, layered paintings which display a harmonious interrelationship of colours and of naturalistic and abstract forms.

DR FRIEDERIKE KRISHNABHAKDI VASILAKIS is a visual artist, curator, and writer. She is interested in interdisciplinary research exploring challenges to self and society boundaries in the Anthropocene. She previously worked as a journalist and taught Art History, Art Theory, and Indigenous Studies at the University of Wollongong. Friederike also directed the South Coast Writers Centre and launched a successful Indigenous Literary program and Kids program. Her eco-writing engages with Anthropocene discourse, and her fiction and non-fiction have been featured in several publications, including Griffith Review and TEXT.

Friederike has exhibited art since 1994, with her latest exhibition, DEEP SOUNDING, focusing on ecotones and the world as a shared living space, showcased at the Wollongong Art Gallery in 2022.

ALENA, FRIEDERIKE AND ARTWAYS

In 2022 Alena and Friederike founded ArtWays, an enterprise with two streams: ArtWays to Creative Skills, and ArtWays to Wholeness. They run retreats and also facilitate creative workshops for SEED, an initiative that brings holistic wellbeing practices to the struggling healthcare sector. They are currently producing books on pattern and free line drawing to aid in stress relief and to stimulate creativity.

Image left: Rain in Casuarina. 2016.Acrylic on Canvas. 91 x 101cm by Alena Kennedy.

Image right: Seagull in Water, 2021, mixed media film still / watercolour /photomontage by Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis

Artists DEBORAH REDWOOD and DAVID CURTIS will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 14th October 2pm- 3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

Deborah Redwood’s practice encompasses sculpture and installation. She graduated from the College of Fine Arts (Sydney) in 2006, with a one year exchange at Alfred University, New York. She completed a Masters of Fine Art at The University of Newcastle in 2020. She has participated in residencies and group/solo exhibitions in: Australia, Japan, China, India, Kenya, Macedonia, NZ and the USA. Redwood features in collections in Australia and internationally. Her work has been a finalist in many well-known Australian Sculpture events such as: Sculpture by the Sea, SWELL Sculpture Festival, The North Sydney Art Prize and Sculpture at Scenic World. Deborah won “The Chan Sculpture Prize”, in 2022 and “Sculpture in the Gardens”, 2023. 

David Curtis has over 25 years of practical and theoretical experience of conservation in rural and urban areas in Australia. He has worked professionally as a manager, senior policy officer, university lecturer, environmental educator and researcher. He recently completed an innovative 5-year research project into the role of the visual and performing arts in shaping environmental behaviour. The presentation will consider how the arts can encourage pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. It will provide an overall framework to examine this subject and consider some case studies from the recent Ecoarts Australis conferences in Wollongong and elsewhere. It will be presented jointly by Frances Curtis, Gabrielle Quigley and David Curtis. Fran has a long experience in the performing arts as a teacher, performer and director, most notably as head teacher of dance and drama at Wollongong High School for the Performing Arts. Gabi has long been involved in art education and community events through large and small non-profit organisations, including Ecoarts Australis, Circus WOW and currently at the Nan Tien Temple. David has researched and published a number of books and articles on how the arts shape environmental behaviour, co-ordinated three international conferences in Wollongong on that topic and was founder of Ecoarts Australis Inc.

Image left: Banksia by Deborah Redwood. Image right: In the Balance by Anna Curtis, 2003.

Artists LILYBETH MAYHEW and DR EMMA MAYHEW will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 19th August 2pm- 3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

After retiring from St Mary Star of the Sea College as Head of English, Lilybeth Mayhew went back to art making which had begun in the sixties when she attended Wollongong TAFE.  Lilybeth Mayhew is totally centred on the Illawarra and the meeting of the escarpment and the sea. Her style is naiive, in the sense that although recognisable as objects and persons, figures and landscape in her work have a simplistic form. Colour is everything to her as are patterns and lines. Her collages of Port Kembla, Kiama and Thirroul are celebrations of our area. Currently she is returning to pure water colour as she did in the late sixties. 

Emma Mayhew is a social worker and artist. She has a PhD in sociology from UOW and has more recently completed a Masters of Social Work (via University of New England). She is currently teaching in the social work school at the UOW. Emma's recent work with acute mental health clients, while working for NSW Health, has opened up her interest in the therapeutic aspects of creative expression. In the last 100 years art therapy has grown as a profession and is becoming more acceptable as a holistic approach to improve wellbeing. To this end, Emma is currently studying an Advanced Diploma in Transpersonal Art Therapy through the Centre for Complementary Medicine in Sydney.  

Emma will speak about her personal experience using visual art journaling techniques (mixed media, collage, printing, writing) to communicate and reflect on her own grief and loss. She will also provide some examples of how a range of creative modalities can support psychological growth and healing. In particular she will examine techniques and concepts of transpersonal psychology/psychoanalysis including: the amplification process, mandala work, working with symbols archetypes, and outlining a holistic approach that looks at all aspects of human experience (the biological-psychological-social-spiritual).
Images: Left - Lilybeth Mayhew 'Fractured Rainforest. Right - Dr Emma Mayhew ''Space Walk'.

Creativity Games is a one-hour, fun session of party-game style activities that will boost your creativity.

Creativity Games includes word games, making special lists, thinking of strange uses for everyday objects, making random associations and much more. You will be expected to share your answers. Dr Richard Caladine will provide a brief introduction and host the games. There will be information to take home so your creativity can continue to grow. Thinking up weird and wacky stuff is encouraged!

Creativity Games is not an art class. It's about developing your creative thinking skills. It is family friendly and has been designed for the general public. No artistic ability is required. The games are not competitive. They are not about being faster, stronger or better. They are about boosting your creativity while having fun.

Bookings Essential - Email richard@richardcaladine.com

In conjunction with the IAVA members’ exhibition, ‘Travelling On.’

ILLAWARRA ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (IAVA) PRESENTS ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:

Artists JULIE DONNELLY and KATRINA O’BRIEN will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 29th October 2pm- 3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

Julie Donnelly and Katrina O’Brien are local artists who met at the Illawarra Tafe over twenty years ago. Since then they have shared a studio space and had exhibitions together. They have followed each other’s art practice ever since. Katrina has gone on to be represented by Curatorial & Co in Redfern and will be represented at the Sydney Contempory art show in September 2022.

Julie Donnelly’s Artist Statement

I am an abstract artist who bases their art in the landscape. I have always been influenced by the natural beauty that surrounds us. I paint and make sculptures and currently I am working with paper in all its forms.

Katrina O’Brien’s Artists Statement
A full time artist working from a studio in the Illawarra, I work primarily on paper. I am drawn to the unseen and love to explore sounds, dreams, thoughts and experiences through painting and drawing. My practice in recent years has been heavily influenced by music. A sound can present itself as a rich landscape that I feel my way through. The sound becomes a story, the story becomes a painting, the painting becomes a sound.

Left image:  Julie Donnelly, Into The Blue, 92cm x 92cm, Timber construction.

 Right image: Katrina O’Brien, Teach Me to Fly, 216x250cm, Mixed media on Arches paper.

ILLAWARRA ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (IAVA) PRESENTS ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:

Artists DIANA WOOD CONROY and JACKY REDGATE will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 4 JUNE 2022, 2-3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

DIANA WOOD CONROY

Diana Wood Conroy is a senior artist in woven tapestry, drawing and watercolour painting who lives in the Illawarra, NSW, exhibiting her work over six decades.  She combines an archaeological approach with ways of relating to country through long connections with Yolngu and Tiwi artists. Her studies of artefacts in the excavation of a Hellenistic Roman theatre in Cyprus since 1996 informs her creative work. With exhibitions and public commissions, her art is held in national and international collections. She is a member of the Illawarra Association of Visual Arts and Emeritus Professor, Visual Arts, at the University of Wollongong.

JACKY REDGATE

Jacky Redgate holds an outstanding position in Australian art. Represented by leading galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, with retrospectives in the Museum of Contemporary Arts and at the Art Gallery of NSW as well as major galleries interstate, her art has been acknowledged as conceptually acute in contemporary practice, crossing between sculpture, photography, and installation, and includes allusions to art history. Diana supervised her Doctor of Creative Arts degree at the University of Wollongong, and Jacky travelled to Cyprus with other DCA candidates in the Senior Artists Research Forum. Diana and Jacky have been colleagues at UOW and friends for decades. 

Left Image: The Theatre of Ariadne, 2001.Tapestry fragment in linen, wool and silk, on canvas, gouache, gesso, graphite with Woonona earth pigment (coal wash) 178 x 184 cm. Collection Flinders University Art Museum.

Right Image: Light Throw, (Mirrors) #1, 2009 type C photograph, 127 x 158 cm Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, University of Wollongong Art Collection, NSW, Griffith University Art Collection, Queensland. Exhibited in Travellers from Australia, Pafos2017 European Capital of Culture. 

ILLAWARRA ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (IAVA) PRESENTS ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:

Artists IAN BROWN and DAVID ROACH will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 28 May 2022, 2-3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

IAN BROWN

My psyche is now predominantly about my art. In another life I was much more academic… I now immerse myself in all in all things art. I work in abstraction where mark making becomes the most important aspect of the work. Fragmented landscapes emerge from bold textured responses. At the moment I enjoy baring back the pristine natural wooden canvas allowing the imagined world to evolve. My work explores layers of heavy texture, bold acrylics incorporating hand printed monotypes to intrigue the viewer. True colour is not necessarily an important aspect of my work as the abstracted form takes precedence. My works hopefully provide a narrative to explore the landscape with a non-traditional edge.

DAVID ROACH

I am an artist and filmmaker. Narrative drive is important in my films. They’re temporal journeys. Whereas my paintings are more like palimpsests, layered thoughts. If I’m lucky I discover meaning somewhere in those layers. It can be fleeting and arbitrary, like finding a moment in time captured in geological sedimentation. The marks that move across the surface of my paintings could suggest animal tracks, pathways, contour lines or a child’s scribbles. I work in abstraction. I don’t make pictures of things. In film, the real power comes from the subtext - the gap between the language and the thought. Where does the 'art' take place; in the painting or in the viewer’s perception of it? Perhaps it happens in the still point half way between the two.

Left Image: Ian Brown, The Cove, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 120cm, 2021.

Right Image: David Roach, Walking the Wodi Wodi II, cedar, acrylic, ground pigment on board, 78 x 70cm, 2021.

ILLAWARRA ASSOCIATION FOR THE VISUAL ARTS (IAVA) PRESENTS ARTISTS IN CONVERSATION:

Artists SALWA WOODROOFE and JOHN PERKINS will discuss their differing art practices.

Saturday 2 October, 2-3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery

Free, all welcome.

SALWA WOODROFFE retired in 1997 after a 23 year academic career. She studied fine art at the Wollongong TAFE, attended art courses at the Sydney Art School and many workshops. Salwa paints in the style of an impressionist realist, has had numerous solo and group exhibitions, and been awarded several prestigious prizes. In 2014 she was published in the International Contemporary Artist and has contributed seven articles for the Australia Artist magazine. www.salwawoodroffe.com

JOHN PERKINS tutored for over 35 years at various institutions and is sought after as a demonstrator and Judge for many suburban Art groups. John is a multi-award winning artist recognised for his still life, marine and landscapes. He is a Fellow and President of the Royal Art Society of NSW, Inaugural President of Combined Art Societies of Sydney and Life Member of Drummoyne Art Society. www.johnperkins.com.au

(Images: (detail) SALWA WOODROFFE, Paul Ryan-brush millage, oil on canvas, 97x72cm and JOHN PERKINS, Crane Scape, oil and acrylic on stretched canvas, 1200x900)