PUBLIC PROGRAM
SUNDAYS at 3pm on Observatory Hill

 

SUNDAY 28 May at 3pm

LOUISE DOYLE, arts manager

In her recent role as Director, Cairns Regional Art Gallery, Louise Doyle commissioned  this important survey exhibition of senior artist, Ray Crooke, for the Gallery’s 10th anniversary year. On Sunday 28 May, Doyle presents an overview on Crooke’s 50 year dialogue and engagement with the landscape and his place in the development of Australian landscape painting.

 

SUNDAY 04 JUNE at 3pm         

LUKE SCIBERRAS, artist

The paintings and etchings of Luke Sciberras are based upon the landscapes around Hill End, NSW, where he lives with his family.  Since its “re-discovery” by Donald Friend & Russell Drysdale in 1947, Hill End has become a place where many of Australia’s most prominent artists have come for retreat and inspiration. In 2003, Ray Crooke had a productive residency there, staying at Murray’s Cottage, Donald Friend’s former studio/home. Luke Sciberras responds to Crooke’s earthy palette, while discussing his own engagement with the surrounds of Hill End.

 

SUNDAY 11 JUNE at 3pm

EUAN MACLEOD & TONY COSTA, artists

Euan Macleod and Tony Costa are celebrated landscape artists who have travelled extensively to study & paint remote areas of Australia – a reoccurring theme throughout Crooke’s landscape work. Both artists give a personal response to the exhibition, looking at Crooke’s technique, palette, tonal qualities and focus regions.

 

SUNDAY 18 JUNE at 3pm

TERRI JANKE & MARK MORDUE

Terri Janke is a descendant of the Meriam people of the Torres Strait Islands and the Wuthathi people of mainland Australia.  Born in Cairns, Terri now lives in Sydney with her family where she runs her own legal firm specialising in Indigenous cultural and intellectual property. Terri has written widely about these issues and her short stories have been published in Islandand Southerly. Butterfly Song is her debut novel.
Mark Mordue is an Australian writer, award-winning journalist & editor. His non-fiction travel work, Dastagh: Diary of a Headtrip, tracks a year long journey across the planet where his observation of places is incorporated with elements of the personal, the poetic and the philosophical.  Mordue has spent considerable time in Far North and Central Australia.  He reads from Dastagh & recounts his own personal ‘encounters with country’.

 

SUNDAY 25 JUNE at 3PM

DAVID PAVICH, KATE DORROUGH & JANET HASLETT
artists in residence at Hill End, NSW
ROBERT KENNEDY & PAULA McKAY – DiVerse Poets

 

In the 19th century, Hill End was a gold mining town. Its topography still carries the scars of mining, which in its ochre, abstract rawness, was first painted by Friend & Drysdale, then Olley, Smart & Bellette later Olsen & Whiteley, with many more to follow. The town is now home & studio for a growing number of artists and to an ongoing artist-in-residence program run by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.  Ray Crooke was in residence in 2003.  David Pavich & Kate Dorrough have both been awarded the artist-in residency program, while Janet Haslett divides her time between CBD Sydney and a studio retreat in Hill End.    

 

For the final day of the Ray Crooke landscape exhibition, the artists will be joined by poets Robert Kennedy & Paula McKay, from DiVerse to read their poems relating to the landscape

 

 

Media interview & photo opportunities:
Artist Ray Crooke will be available for interviews & photo opportunities at S.H. Ervin Gallery
Phone Leah Haynes: 02 9258 0150 for further details.

S.H. Ervin Gallery
National Trust Centre
Watson Road, Observatory Hill, The Rocks, Sydney
Gallery Hours:            Tuesday – Sunday 11am-5pm. 
General information:   02 9258 1073 www.nsw.nationaltrust.org.au
Media information:      02 9258 0150
Education officer:       02 9258 0122 - group bookings & school tours welcome   
Admission fees:          $6/$4 National Trust members & concessions.
Public Program Talks free with Gallery admission.

Exhibition Supported by

S.H. Ervin Gallery supported by