EXHIBITION IS UP

'VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core' is now up and ready for visitors. Doors open tomorrow, Tuesday 22 February at 10 am. The opening night is Wednesday 23 from 6-8 pm. The exhibition is open daily until Sunday 6 March 6 pm.

Where?...at Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

* Artist's talk in discussion with Art Historian Dr. Christine Dauber is Saturday 26 February at 3 pm at the exhibition. For more details please visit: http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/02/vortex-exhibition-and-artists-talk.html

The vortex core offers a place of stillness where we can hear things we did not know could be heard, see things we did not could be seen and feel things we did not know could be felt, thus…perhaps…inspiring questions we did not know to ask.

Here are some photos of the exhibition!



  

 

L to R - Portal and Compassion

The photo above shows my Australia 'quiet activism paintings. L to R - GAB: Great Artesian Basin, Underground Currency, Murray Darling Currency and Commodified  

                                 L to R - Galaxial Landscape and Cosmic Frisson

If you are in Brisbane over the next 2 weeks pop in to see VORTEX.

Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

PORTAL

                                Portal Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm

My exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core opens to the public next Tuesday, with the opening night on Wednesday 23rd 6-8 pm. So, countdown.

The subtitle of Seeking Stillness At Its Core is the important bit for me. I am not interested in portraying depictions of the outer vortex, the cataclysmic, catastrophic or just the plain mayhem of everyday life. After all, there's enough in the general media to keep reminding us...over and over again.

I am interested in exploring potential in stillness. To find stillness, one part of the process is to consciously let go of the negative and unhelpful. These can be beliefs, people, experiences, emotions and so on. Merely ignoring them is not enough because they have an annoyingly irritating habit of surfacing when least wanted ! Letting go is a conscious elision which entails an acknowledgement and then a 'good bye'.

Once let go, negativity exists only in absentia. Lessons learnt and insights gained salute all experience, both negative and positive. In stillness we can reflect upon this knowledge, and in the process create and see new knowledge. Indeed, knowing who we are not, certainly helps us know who we are.

Portal [above] created with two trees which meet in a flash of light, could be the opening into a vortex core. Or maybe the vortex has been cut in cross section enticing the viewer into the stillness. The wreath-like appearance of the circle of trees, hints at a rememberance and acknowledgement of those things which we have let go, in order to become still.

Indeed, to become still, I do think we need more than an action of letting go. This action requires imagination, as does being in stillness. Imagination is the propellor and beauty is the conductor. Beauty offers hope. Beauty is not a vacuuous prettiness because it holds the pathos of true knowledge, as it elides ugliness it knows it exists in absentia. Beauty itself is a portal.

I have written about beauty previously:
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/beauty-and-vortex.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/beauty.html

SIMILAR PAINTINGS
Compassion
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html
Love
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/01/love.html
Afterglow
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/afterglow.html

RADIO INTERVIEW
I am being interviewed on radio on Sunday 20 Feb at around 12.30 pm. Richard Lancaster's 'Intoto' programme on Radio 99.7 FM. Tune in! I've been interviewed by Richard a few times before, for my own exhibitions or for a festival I was often a spokesperson for. He's a great interviewer and very relaxed.

VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core
Gradon Gallery
29 Merthyr Rd
New Farm, Brisbane Queensland, Australia


Dates Tuesday 22 Feb - Sunday 6 March
Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm
OPENING NIGHT Wednesday 23 Feb 6-8 pm

ARTIST'S TALK IN DISCUSSION WITH DR. CHRISTINE DAUBER
On Saturday 26 February from 3-4 pm, at Graydon Gallery, there will be an Artist's talk with artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox in discussion with Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD Art History, University of Qld].



Cheers,
Kathrynhttp://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kathrynbrimblecombe-fox/

COMMODIFIED

Commodified Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm 2011

PARADISE @ Purgatory Artspace Melbourne

'Paradise' is open to the public from Thursday 8 September! The opening night is Friday 9 September 6-8 pm. The exhibition dates are 8 September - 8 October, 11 am - 5 pm Tuesday to Saturday at PURGATORY ARTSPACE, 170 Abbotsford St, North Melbourne.

Please check out http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/

and http://www.artabase.net/exhibition/3275-paradise

'COMMODIFIED' Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm 2011

The painting is obviously a map of Australia, but upon closer scrutiny the viewer will discern that the 'map' is created with small $ signs. Regular readers of this BLOG will know that I use small $ signs to depict water, soil etc to pose or stimulate questions about how we 'value' our land. I deliberately make the $ signs small so that from a distance the viewer does not discern them, but when the viewer is close the $ signs become clearly apparent. This play with distance asks questions such as, 'Have you noticed?' It plays with the responsibility we all have to negotiate distance as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world. AND, I don't mean just physical distance, but temporal, cultural, emotional and spiritual.


I am deeply concerned about the sustainability of prime and strategic farmland in Australia. An enslaught of rapid and hectic activity from mining companies, especially coal seam gas miners, threatens this sustainability. I am anti any kind of activity that threatens water sustainability, strategic and prime food producing farmland. With a burgeoning population the world needs to maintain its farmlands in order to feed people. After all, you cannot flick the light switch if you've expired from hunger! Governments need to ensure prime farmlands, and the farmers who farm them, are protected from invasive mining activities. These include those activities that threaten above and below ground water supplies and quality, soil health, and efficient and environmentally sound farming practices. Regular readers will know that I have written about these before. Here are some links to previous posts:
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/01/underground-currency.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/food-fantasy-in-future.html
http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/murray-darling-currency.html

Governments must prioritise food sustainability for obvious humane reasons, but also for political stability. Hungry stomachs make for angry hearts, and angry hearts make for civil unrest and worse.

'Commodified' is a simple looking painting...indeed it did not take as long as some of my more intricate ones, but it speaks of the madness erupting across parts of Qld and NSW [indeed across the globe! Have you seen 'Gasland'?] with regards to potential degradation of farmlands by mining activities. This madness is what I see as the outer VORTEX, the chaotic whirlwind that does not allow for contemplation and considered scrutiny...or for a scientific analysis of risk. Two soil scientists who spoke at the public forum on the CSG industry, which I attended at the University of Queensland late last year, both started their presentations describing what's happening as 'madness'. Here's the link to my post about the forum:  http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/donkey-and-other-things.html

Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

BLOOD CONNECTION

BLOOD CONNECTION Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm

Life is getting to be a bit more normal after the Brisbane flood. Bigpond was restored on the weekend...and I've fallen back into my unhealthy habit of spending too much time hooked online. Well, probably not really! But being without internet for so long really highlighted how much time I spend at my computer.

On a broader picture, many people adversely affected by the floods, cyclones or fires here in Australia, are still without power, communication and other basic utilities. One friend has said to me that it amazes her how easily we fall into new patterns of survival when we have to...even if these patterns are accompanied by new or different stresses. Ultimately very exhausting though.

While I was offline I completed the painting above. I had started it before the flood and it, like all my other paintings on the ground floor, was stacked upstairs in case flood waters seeped into my house [thankfully the house remained dry!]. I took this painting back downstairs to my studio [aka garage] about a week after the flood. All the other paintings are still upstairs! Once I have my exhibition I'll get stuck into returning the house to its proper state!

BLOOD CONNECTION
The idea for this painting has been in my mind for some time. I wanted to create an image which brought the whole world together, an image that reminded us that we are connected across time and space...an image that spoke of the connections we make in war and peace. In war it is the spilling of blood, the blood which knows no colour other than red, and is pumped through our bodies with a universal rhythm. Indeed a pulse, like breath, is a basic sign of life, not differentiated by race or culture.

As a child, watching various shows on tv I was intrigued by the concept of blood brothers...you know...when two or more people would cut themselves and then rub the wounds together. As I write this description I am well aware that today this kind of activity could send parents, teachers into a frenzy of worry about such curses as HIV. However, in my childhood it stoked imaginations conjuring up visions of life long comradeship and loyalty.

So, Blood Connection is an image of the map of the world. My much loved transcultural/religious tree of life spills forth from the bottom left of the painting. It flourishes across the canvas pouring out the oceans in blue and the landmasses in blood red. The branches of the tree connect land and sea, the colour red connects each landmass, continent and country, to suggest the visceral and vascular qualities of a body, and the inevitible penetrability of manmade borders, those invisible demarkations that men and women fight to preserve at the behest of governments, ideologies, politics and religions . The world, becomes THE body. Blood spilled becomes the body of the Earth, leaving a memory trace of shared human existence through the loss of life...and tears. A metaphoric rubbing of wounds together....


WATER
The Earth as a body, appeals to me. Why? Well, like our human bodies the Earth is about 70% water. Of this percentage only 2% is freshwater, thus the great need to ensure we look after it. Maybe if we thought more of the Earth as a body we'd be less likely to plunder its resources with such gusto? Maybe risk factors would be more targeted and less broad...more scientific in risk analysis rather than business orientated in risk analysis?

Regular readers will know of my intense interest in water and its various issues. Indeed, water is quite topical here in Australia at the moment! But, it is always topical...we seem to either not have enough or we have too much! Growing up on a grain farm certainly taught me about the vagaries of water. As an adult living in Goondiwindi I learnt more about the commodification of water, its infrastructures, costs, ownership etc.

Blood Connection will be in my forthcoming exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At its Core. Indeed, the painting, whilst it 'speaks' of blood spilled, it also reminds us of the throbbing of life. In the space between loss and life, there exists a place to contemplate, a place of stillness, where we can possibly hear those things we did not know we could hear, see those things we did not know we could see and feel those things we did not know we could feel, ultimately revealing a compassion for self and others which may... just may...mean the end of war and the sustainability of peace.

MAP and WATER PAINTINGS
I have painted a few other paintings which are maps created with my transcultural/religious tree of life. These paintings deal with water issues. This link will take you to an image and post called 'Underground Currency'. where there are links to other posts and images.  http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2011/01/underground-currency.html


VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane
Tuesday 22 Febraury - Sunday 6 March
Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

Cheers,
Kathryn

VORTEX: EXHIBITION AND ARTIST'S TALK

Stillness Within Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/06/stillness.html

I still do not have my proper internet at home, but when I visiting the Telstra Shop today, for an unrelated reason, I mentioned I still did not have internet due to a continuing area Bigpond network outage...and I was given a 5 gigabyte Mobile WiFi device. So, I am reconnected and I am SO happy. I can now send out all my email invitations for my exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core. I have had them drafted in my draft folder for ages.

And, readers, I promise you I chose the title for the exhibition long before cyclones started pummeling an already pummelled Qld.

BRISBANE FLOOD

On Wednesday 12 January I evacuated from my house with the Brisbane River rising on one side and overflowing into low lying nearby parkland. Water had started filling my street from this overflow and also from gushing storm water drains. I had not gone to bed on Tuesday night because I was taking all that I could from downstairs to my upstairs...making sure there was some order to the chaos too. I had sandbagged external doors, my pool pumps had been detached and taken to higher ground. My car, and my daughter's car, were full of petrol and parked up the hill. My dog was at a friend's house. Friends were so wonderful!

But, to my great relief the water did not get into my house or yard. On Thursday morning when I gingerly waded through some water to ascertain my house's condition I was so thankful to see that me and my neighbours had been spared major damage. We are the lucky ones, as I know many people who suffered severe damage, and thus the interruption to lives, financial stress and so on.

On the weekend after the flood my street was inundated with volunteers, who helped with everything the flood had caused. I am so grateful to all those people who assisted me with shifting mud. I had fallen heavily on the Wednesday morning and ignored wounds on my ankle. Well... yes... they got infected and I needed antibiotics, and redressing of the wounds every second day at my doctor's surgery. I stuck a plastic bag over my foot, but it still did not allow me to get muddy in order to help all those who were helping me. The power came back on 6 days after I evacuated, and that was also the day my children returned home. I am so glad they were not here when I was madly preparing!

VORTEX

I am getting excited about my forthcoming show which opens in just under 3 weeks. The flood and aftermath forced me to stop painting for about 2 weeks, but I have taken my easel back downstairs to my studio...aka garage! Ah...yes...I am not moving everything else back until after the cyclone season! The sand bags are still guarding my doors!

VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At its Core

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

Tuesday 22 Feb - Sunday 6 March

Open Daily 10 am - 6 pm

Opening Night Wednesday 23 Feb 6-8 pm

Can We Eat Coal For Breakfast-NO! Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/11/food-fantasy-in-future.html

ARTIST'S TALK!

ARTIST’S TALK: KATHRYN BRIMBLECOMBE-FOX

IN DISCUSSION WITH ART HISTORIAN DR. CHRISTINE DAUBER
@ VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core

GRAYDON GALLERY
29 MERTHYR RD
NEW FARM, BRISBANE

DATE: Saturday 26 February.

TIME: 3 PM – 3.45 pm and drinks afterwards.

Painting for Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox is a spiritual event. Her work has a lyrical optimism that emanates from the beauty of the work itself and from the poetic nature of her supporting texts. Her personal oeuvre is both intelligent and understated. It comes with a big agenda-to make the world a better place in which to live. A daunting goal: but for Brimblecombe-Fox, optimism is a state of mind-a matter of choice- a way of always moving forward. This means her painting is ethically driven, politically informed and aesthetically pleasing. Dr. Christine Dauber

VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core
• Exploring the possibility of stillness in the vortex core where we can listen to things we did not know could be heard, see things we did not know could be seen and feel things we did not know could be felt. As we live locally in an increasingly globalised world new perspectives inspire compassion for self and others.
• Investigating the distance between the nano and cosmological, and thus revealing new perspectives.
• And...WATER...well how does water go down the plughole? As a farmer’s daughter Kathryn has an intense interest in the conversations and debates about water, its uses, value, commodification, infrastructure, sustainability. These are her ‘quiet activism’ paintings!

Online gallery @ http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/water-gallery.html

BLOG http://www.kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/
WEBSITE http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/
MOB: 0409 059 018 PH: From Monday 21 Feb [07] 32542325

Cheers,
Kathryn

VORTEX COMING SOON

This is an image of Galaxial Landscape Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm. It will be in my forthcoming exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core which opens Wed 23 Feb 6-8pm. The exhibition dates are Tues 22 Feb - Sunday 6 March and it will be open daily 10 am -6 pm.

Regular readers, I am sorry I have not posted much lately, but the floods here in Brisbane have been disastrous. I am one of the lucky ones because my house did not get wet, but I did have to evacuate through nearly knee high water in my street. I had spent the previous 2 days preparing the house, by sandbagging doors, and taking everything that was downstairs to my second floor. I filled my car and my daughter's car with fuel and parked them up high, plus a whole lot of other preparations that you just do not think of until you have to.  

I am still without internet at home, so I am using my daughter's laptop remotely. Bigpond does not know when internet will be restored as various pivotal junctions were totally covered by water for a few days and repairs are currently being done around the clock. 

It is very distressing when I meet people who had houses that were totally inundated with water. Some, did not expect to be flooded and thus were not prepared. It is very sad too to think of the devastation in the Lockyer Valley where the wall of water caused loss of life and homes and everything else. I have relations who live in the Valley and they are physically ok, but they have lost massive production on their farms.

As regular readers now, I write and paint about water. In the aftermath of the flood I am thinking again about the implications of commodifying water. I have written about this before and I will write more about it when I have better internet access.

Cheers,

Kathryn

FLOOD

Hi There. I have been absent for awhile because we have had floods in Brisbane and I had to evacuate my house. Not before all my belongings from downstairs were taken upstairs, plus a whole lot of other precautions. The good news is that my house did not get wet, but another 20-30cm and it would have! I am one of the lucky ones, because many people have lost everything. In the Lockyer Valley many also lost their lives. The flooding all over QLD has been devastating.

I still do not have internet reconnected to my house, thus it is not so easy for me to keep up with my BLOG. Hopefully BIGPOND will have the outage in my area fixed soon.

All my paintings were taken upstairs. But, I have returned my easel and paints to my downstairs studio and will get back to painting this weekend. VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core, my forthcoming exhibition, is back on track! Check out my TWITPIC event page @ http://twitpic.com/e/v3x

I can't load any images easily, as I am working on my daughter's laptop remotely.


Cheers,
Kathryn 

UNDERGROUND CURRENCY

Underground Currency Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010

I have really had fun painting this new work 'Underground Currency'. Yes, it is a painting of Australia! But, it is Australia with one of her most wondrous life sustaining natural gifts exposed. This gift is the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) which extends across 22% of the continent. It is not one big underground lake, but rather a system of aquifers, some very deep and others closer to the surface. 

GREAT ARTESIAN BASIN and MINING

There are risks to the Great Artesian Basin due to a burgeoning mining industry, especially coal seam gas [CSG] mining. Regular readers will know how concerned I am about the potential for degradation to water and soils. 

In fact, the federal Government's own National Water Commission's recent position paper on CSG and Water clearly calls for caution.

http://www.nwc.gov.au/www/html/2959-coal-seam-gas.asp?intSiteID=1

FARM GIRL

I grew up on a grain farm outside Dalby, on the Darling Downs, Queensland. My Dad had a bore, which provided us with water in times of drought. However, whilst it kept plants alive and allowed us to wash clothes and ourselves during dry times, it was a too salty for ongoing human or animal consumption. Yet, 2-3 km away our neighbour's bore provided water that was drinkable for human beings and animals. The worry is that mining and CSG fracking techniques [pushing chemicals, water and sand into coal seams to release gas ie: creating mini-like earthquakes] could cause natural occurring barriers in aquifer systems to break down and allow for cross contamination, not only of different water qualities, but also chemicals [natural and introduced]. Many farmers rely on underground water to sustain livestock and grow our food.

UNDERGROUND CURRENCY  Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm

So, to the painting! This work is closely related to two earlier works on paper 'Murray Darling Currency' and 'GAB: Great Artesian Basin'. Its title, with the word currency, plays with ideas of water flowing, financial terms, and contemporaneousness...the flow/current of water, money and time! But, it also refers to political currency; the machinations of political agendas molded and stroked by power, business, lobbyists and needs, desires and wants. Look closely and you will see that I have painted the area of the GAB with small blue $ signs. 

The word underground in the title can be read as literally referring to underground aquifer water supplies, but it also refers to a subtext of political decision making that impacts on the environment and thus...us. In a broader context it also refers to the kind of secrets and subterfuge which propelled the world towards the Global Financial Crisis [GFC]...indeed is it really over? Even the Wikileaks revelations exposes the 'underground'; the secrets that form a hidden dimension, populated by shadows, that impact life.  

The picture below is a detail of 'Underground Currency'. You can see more clearly the small blue $ signs I have used  to depict the Great Artesian Basin...currency!!! From a distance these $ are not discernible, but they are as the viewer moves closer to the painting. Regular readers will know that I like to entice the viewer to move back and forth posing questions like, 'Have you noticed?' But, also alluding to the back and forth movements, from far to close perspective, that are necessary as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world.  The use of a symbol of wealth, to depict a natural substance, questions how we 'value' nature's gifts.

Tree-of-Life

But there is hope! My much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif creates the sea surrounding Australia as well as the continent. The tree 'speaks' of pulsing life systems. Its vascular like essence linking everything seen and unseen. Its beauty deliberately edging out ugliness to provide hope for a future ongoing. 

 

                                                         Detail Underground Currency

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

STIRRING THE SENSORIUM

Into The Sensorium Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

I am writing this on New Year's Eve, and like many people am pondering upon and wondering about the decade past, and the new one which is about to commence. Also, as I write this much of Queensland is flooded, with many towns evacuated, farms water sogged with submerged crops, mines full of water and/or cut off by flooded roads. I have just heard from a friend of mine that Rockhampton airport is closed and will not reopen until well into January. For many people this New Year's Eve is devastating, and my thoughts go out to them.

The beginning of a decade is like a doorway into possibility. When I was a child, my brothers and I would talk about how old we'd be in certain years into the future. I remember at the ages of around 12,10 and 8 in the early 70s, we thought 1990 was just SO far into the future and we'd be SO old!

NEW PAINTINGS

The painting above 'Into The Sensorium' speaks of that place, I imagine inside the vortex core, where stillness enables us to listen to things we did not know we could hear, see things we did not know could be seen and feel things we did not could be felt. Sensorium means 'the sensory apparatus or faculties considered as a whole' [Oxford online]. With this meaning in mind, I 'see' the vortex core as a place where sentience is about simultaneous knwoings, where we can absorb all and BE still with ourselves, and all of humanity.

Regular readers will identify my transcultural/religious tree-of-life motif which 'speaks' of life on Earth, and beyond to cosmological realms and spiritual worlds, both vast and intimate. The spiral of colourful leaves draws the viewer into the painting...the leaves are simultaneously moments and eons of time. I like the way they 'kind of' dance!

Into The Sensorium will be in my Februrary show 'Vortex: Seeking Stillness At Its Core'.

                               Glimpsing The Truth Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

Glimpsing The Truth is again my vision of being inside the vortex, at its core. Yet, a bit like Dr. Who's Tardis, once inside the vortex core, one realises that size, distance and perspective are no longer relevant...or at least how we humans judge them with our limited line-of-sight. This painting refers to another recent painting called Multiverse, where I have painted a tree with intermittent small portal like 'holes' or 'vortexes'. Each one of them suggests the possibility of other universes and new dimensions. Glimpsing The Truth is like a close up of one of the small portals in Multiverse.

Whilst the idea of other universes 'out there' is exciting and stimulating, the search for 'universes' can also be about discoveries within our psyches and souls, both individually and as a human race. Indeed, a search within, reveals that size, distance and perspective have no limits, and thus might need to be conceptually and spiritually re-negotiated...and in doing so reawakened 


22 Feb-6 March 2011, Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthry Rd, New Farm, Brisbane

If you want to see more than one painting at a time, I am gradually uploading images for my exhibition at http://www.twitpic.com/e/v3x Twitpic reproduces images really well.http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/


Cheers and Happy New Year,
Kathryn



Glimpsing The Truth will be in my February show 'Vortex;Seeking Stillness At Its Core' .

UNLEASHING WONDER

Unlimited Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Below is the essay written for my 2005 Abu Dhabi exhibition by Holly Arden, Arts Writer and graduate in Art History [Hons First Class] from the University of Queensland. Holly is currently completing her PhD at Monash University, Theory Dept of the Faculty of Art and Design.

The paintings I have uploaded are a few that were in my Abu Dhabi exhibition and that Holly refers to in her essay.

I have uploaded the essay, because in the last few days I have received some very insightful comments from a person, based in Munich, who visited my BLOG and website. He also made insightful comments about Holly's essay.

When Holly showed me the completed essay with an introductory quote from author Andrew McGahan's 'The White Earth' I was astounded...and very pleased! Holly had had no idea that my parent's farm and the McGahan farm were only a few kilometres apart, and that our families have been friends for decades. Our farms were/are at Pirrunuan which is a railway crossing between Dalby and Jimbour, on the Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The Pirrinuan and Jimbour Plains are treeless tracks of rich black cracking soil. To the west is an endless flat horizon which shimmers into watery mirages. To the east the Bunya Mountain Ranges cut a sharp silhouette against the vast sky. Here's a link to a Google Map where you can see our farms. My farm is at the top left.
http://maps.google.com.au/maps?ie=UTF8&hl=en&om=1&source=embed&t=h&ll=-27.042309,151.237965&spn=0.030044,0.07699&z=14

The White Earth' has received a number of literary awards including; Miles Franklin Literary Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for the South East Asia and South Pacific region, The Age Book of the Year (Fiction) and the Courier Mail Book of the Year Award. It was also shortlisted for the Queensland Premier's Literary Awards that same year. Check out these 2 sites: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/12/1084289744278.html
http://www.allenandunwin.com/default.aspx?page=311&author=218

Holly's 'seeing' of my images in Andrew's words, and her 'reading' of Andrew's prose in my images, spells out the 'magic' foreverness of the vast landscape we grew up in. It also illustrates the power of landscape on the imagination, where the imagination untethers itself from mere replication and description, to stir the vibrational currents that link us all to nature, and thus the impulses of life. The vastness of my childhood landscape gave space to notice the details, to swing from the minutae to the endless, and in doing so unleashed wonder.

Regular readers, who know of my concerns about the Coal Seam Gas [CSG] industry, will feel my distress about the impacts of the influx of coal seam gas mining on the Darling Downs, one of Australia's few prime food producing farmlands.  By puncturing the earth with gas wells, situated about 1 ha apart, not only will there be impacts on the internal health of soils and aquifers, but also on the external landscape. Already, in places where CSG has been active for some time, I have heard of water bores which have dried up, and farmers not being able to find water when trying to establish new bores.

In Holly Arden's chosen quote from Andrew McGahan's book, he refers to 'familiar squares of cultivation' [ie: broadacre farming]. If you have a look at the Google map I linked above you will see an aerial view of what broadacre farming looks like. With CSG, these ' familiar squares of cultivation', will be criss crossed with the all weather access roads which are needed to access every gas well. If you have not seen images of these roads, the pattern on the landscape is like a chaotic web, which disrupts economical and efficient farming practices, creates potential soil erosion issues, subtracts acreage from a farmer's cropping, causes potential problems because of run off [water and vehicular oils etc] onto farming land...etc etc. The landscape will no longer be 'familiar', but more importantly its life sustaining gifts of quality food and fibre will be compromised. Now this is something to be fearful of!

But, this brings me to another question. It is a soul question. What vibrational impact will an internally and externally compromised landscape have on who we are as a race...human race? Yes, over eons, we [human race]  have already changed our landscape in order to feed, house and clothe ourselves. Yet, it seems to me, that this has been a, more or less, evolving process, where we have made mistakes, learnt and changed activity to be more sustainable...it is an ongoing process. But, CSG and the growth of open cut mining in Queensland [and other parts of Australia] are radically, and very quickly, changing our landscape in a way which seems unfetted and diametrically opposed to lessons learnt over the eons. At a forum, on SCG and Open Cut Mining, that I attended at the University of Qld, a few weeks ago, I [and the others in the audience] were appalled when Government and Mining Industry representatives admitted that they did not know the full impact of CSG on the environment, but they'd learn as they go!


                           

Hidden Secrets Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Essay By Holly Arden

…at the foot of the hill washed the plains, immediately flat. Close by the land was divided up into the familiar squares of cultivation, but as the eye leapt outwards the colours and shapes merged, fields and farms spreading all the way to the horizons…. On the left marched the blue line of the mountains, and on the right, the land merely extended forever westwards.
- Andrew McGahan, 'The White Earth'

If there is such thing as a cultural psyche, landscape would be a defining feature of it. This must at least be true in Australia, for people of both indigenous and non-indigenous heritage. And it is hardly surprising, given that Australia is four-fifths the size of North America with a population of around 20.4 million. The landscape, vast and for the most part unpopulated, is literally everywhere. ‘The Land Down Under’, ‘The Great Southern Land’: historically, mythologically and psychologically, Australia’s identity is characterised by the distances that mark its interior and separate it from the rest of the world.


As a result, landscape painting has led arguably the strongest course of Australian art. The landscape works of early post-colonial artists evidenced a type of psychological rationalisation of what they encountered in these new foreign lands. Consequently, these were often filtered through a European aesthetic. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists have pictured landscapes that recount stories of the creation of their ancestral lands. In all its forms, landscape art is a means through which artists have situated themselves physically and sensually, culturally and psychologically, in relation to place. As James Baker writes: ‘Landscape art is often a metaphor for…mindsets in that it is also a result of the response to the environment, not just a representation of it.’

What type of response might living in rural Queensland generate? Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox lived for decades in the agricultural communities of Dalby and Goondiwindi in the state’s south-east. The feelings of desolation and loneliness provoked by rural life has left its mark on the work of numerous Australian painters, foreshadowed it seems by the colonial experience. So it comes, perhaps, as a surprise to see the markedly upbeat works in this exhibition. One of the first ways we experience this is through Brimblecombe-Fox’s use of colour: jewel-like blues and fiery reds. Such reds ring true to the deep russet of the region’s soil and are coupled in works such as Life’s Vibration with a vibrant force of energy expressed by lines that vibrate with optic movement. These are scenes quite different to those traditionally pictured, for example, in Russell Drysdale’s desolate brownish terrains.

Secondly, there is a sense of harmony in these paintings achieved partly through the artist’s refined, almost diagrammatic forms. This suggests Brimblecombe-Fox works from a certain level of objectivity or ‘remove’. By ‘remove’ I mean that she is able to view the earth as a natural system and as one part of a much greater whole. Through the working of its ‘parts’, the vegetation that nurtures life, the blood that supports it, the natural world is able to revolve continuously. In a group of paintings that feature a circular earth motif, a network of roots/nerve endings/blood lines service the earth like veins. These connect with a much greater expanse of sky, which puts the earth, quite literally, into perspective. There is something liberating about this and also humbling. In works such as Every Wonderful Possibility, the sky is formed through repeated semi-circular brushstrokes. Traditionally symbolic of harmony and fertility, the circular earth is filled with the roots of life.

A range of rarefied mountain landscapes accompanies these busier paintings. The stylised, patterned forms in these works have a strong graphic quality. The sharp contrasts of the Darling Downs landscape where the artist lived perhaps lend themselves to such picturing. These are places where rain, as in Mountains Dancing, falls in visible sheets and where the mountains, as writer Andrew McGahan describes, “march” on one side, while “on the right, the land merely extend[s] forever westwards.” These are scenes of hard lines or else expanses of coloured nothingness. Then there are the man-made forms, the angular fields and irrigation channels; landscapes which, especially in the harsh light and heat, lend them to abstract rendering. And in the heat of the day, as in Mountains Dancing, there are illusions everywhere, where the luminous blue of the mountains could be mistaken for a gathering of lakes.

Mountains Dancing Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm

The use of abstracted form is also, for Brimblecombe-Fox, a way of translating her impressions of landscape into paint, impressions for which there are not always visual equivalents. None of these works were painted on site. Therefore, by employing a series of ‘motifs’ that might represent a thought or feeling about a place, or through intuitive brushwork, Brimblecombe-Fox maps a personal, inner landscape. A defining marker of the Darling Downs landscape, the mountain is repeated in a varied range of responses to this metaphor for life’s goals and challenges. (And there must be at least one personal mountain here; achieving an exhibition, let alone in another country is one steep climb)! In Metaphor, warmth seems to emanate from beneath the blanket-like covering of the mountain. In Hidden Secrets, the mountains are veiled, elusive and because of this, ever so slightly ominous. In the russet coloured painting, Mountains As Metaphors, the flowing painted line transforms the mountain range into a wave-like abstract form. Floating in an expanse of flat colour it is inaccessible but, with its gentle undulations, its distance causes no anxiety.

Mountains As Metaphors Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm

Mountains As Metaphors demonstrates Brimblecombe-Fox’s distinctive use of abstract graphic form, particularly line. In this work, the line is highly charged, seeming literally to carve the landscape out from a red void. In Earth’s Vibration and Inside The Mirage, multitudes of loose lines suggest a landscape quivering with potential energy. These heavily worked lines are also physical signifiers of the artist shaping the land in paint. In contrast to these more highly composed paintings, a group of gentler, freer works reflects the artist’s fascination with the possibilities of her medium. In Unlimited, for example, Brimblecombe-Fox builds thin washes of paint, allowing these to drip into forms that could be rain-washed landscapes or layers of wood grain.

Inside The Mirage Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm

Informed by vastness and distance, Brimblecombe-Fox’s paintings have an essence of Australia. But aren’t these qualities (feelings, stories) that might also be found throughout the world, in the desert scapes of the Middle East? Thus, while they speak of specific sites, gained through decades of living in rural Queensland, they are not essentially Australian. Part psychological, part allegorical, they have universal resonance. Most refreshingly, while her large canvases hint at emotions such as the fear and loneliness that come with isolated living, Brimblecombe-Fox never allows them to become overly sentimental. Instead, they reflect a mature artist with the ability to balance feeling with resolved, sophisticated approaches to painting this most charged of subjects.
Holly Arden

So, until next time,
Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

NEXT SOLO EXHIBITION
VORTEX 22 Feb-6 March, Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
I am thinking of having an 'artist's talk' in discussion with an Art Historian on Sat 26 or Sun 27 Feb. Stay tuned for details.

MULTIVERSE

Multiverse Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm 2010

The painting above was inspired by the postulation that our universe is not the only one, ie: that there maybe others, maybe many others, and thus we are potentially part of a multiverse. This image sprang to my mind when I was reading 'Just Six Numbers' by Martin Rees, Professor of Cosmology at Cambridge University. He wrote, '...the ultimate theory might permit a multiverse whose evolution is punctuated by repeated Big Bangs; the underlying physical laws, applying throughout the multiverse, may then permit diversity in the individual universes.' Rees, M. Just Six Numbers: The Deep Froces That Shape the Universe, Basic Books, NY, 2000 p.174

The image that sprang to my mind is a tree with small portal-like 'windows' or 'eyes' dotted amongst the branches, each created by a kind of swirling or vortex action. These portals are more obvious from a distance, because they interrupt the pattern of the tree. Up close, they are still visible, but the interruption to the pattern is not as obvious. I suppose it is a bit like seeing a peacock proudly unfold its plumage, compared with looking at only one feather. The magnificence of the fanned plummage is breathtaking and patterns are discernible, yet one feather, still beautiful, only whispers.

Regular readers will recognise my interest in close and far distance. I like to stimulate both close and far distance viewing of my paintings as a metaphoric template for the negotiation of the distance/space we experience living locally in an increasingly globalised world. AND, indeed, if there are other universes, and we are part of a multiverse, then skills at 'seeing' multiple perspectives simultaneously will be pretty damn handy, I suspect!

The tree in Multiverse is my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life/knowledge. Its branches weave the fabric of Space, which can also be seen metaphorically as the fabric of our soul. In one nano-second we can propel perceptions from the outer reaches of the imagined universe, to the inner reaches of our subconscious, our psyche, our soul. I love the feeling in my brain when my imagination swings from the outwardly vast to the inwardly intimate, but equally vast in possibility. It's a distance thing! From a soul point of view, the small portals in Multiverse offer potentail conduits to new discoveries about ourselves, new connections to who we are as we reflect upon experiences that have taught us who we are not. With reflection we have the opportunity to answer those questions we did not know we needed to ask! For me, this kind of reflection is the kind that happens in stillness...the kind of stillness one might experience at the VORTEX core.

 

 

Multiverse was in my  solo exhibition VORTEX: Seeking Stillness At Its Core in February @ Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane: Tuesday 22 Feb- Sunday 6 March 2010

 

QUESTIONS, AT THE CORE, THAT NEED TO BE ASKED

Regular readers will know of my very deep concern about the impact Coal Seam Gas [CSG] mining has, and will have, on prime strategic farmland here in Australia. These concerns encompass degradation of water aquifers and soil, to severe impediments to farming practices, pollution and environmental degradation caused by CSG infrastructure and implementation needs and activities. I have written about these issues in previous posts. I have also uploaded the paintings I have created which 'speak' about my concerns. I see the 'madness' as  part of the turmoil in the outer vortex. I just wish the power brokers would take time to be still, to see, hear and feel that even the smallest risk to food producing land, is not tenable.

Business risk cannot, and should not, be used as the arbiter of risk when environmental and life sustaining issues are entwined with business production. A business can take risk, depending on various factors. Indeed a 10-20% [or more] risk is often worth it. But, when dealing with the environment, and food production and quality, even a .05% risk is too much. Risk taken in business is not the same as risk taken with life! It is not scientific!

Please read my last few posts and you'll see some of my 'quiet activism' paintings about water and CSG.

Here are some links to action groups fighting the mad dash in CSG mining.

http://www.fof.org.au/index.php?id=4390
http://coal4breakfast.com.au/index.htm
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.basinsustainabilityalliance.org%2F&h=400c2
http://westerndowns.group-action.com/
http://www.sodd.com.au/index.html
http://www.ccag.org.au/
http://www.sixdegrees.org.au/



Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

BEAUTY AND THE VORTEX

Finding The Light Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/finding.html

I have uploaded some of the paintings that will be in my forthcoming exhibition VORTEX. Here's a short statement I have written for the exhibition:

Solo exhibition exploring vortexes, taking the viewer to cosmological extremes and to intimate spiritual places. The turmoil of the outer vortex, depicted in images of environmental degradation, is balanced by images of the inner vortex where stillness offers a place to listen to ourselves. VORTEX traverses distance by playing with perspective and using the age old trans-cultural/religious tree-of-life as a guiding motif which explores the intimate and vast, both temporally and spatially.

Regular readers of my BLOG will know that I have been writing about vortexes for some time now. The statement above just touches upon some of my thoughts. It is always quite difficult to condense something, one is somewhat obsessed by, into a short statement!

I see VORTEX as being a coherent exhibition with paintings exploring the beauty of stillness at the core of the vortex...and other paintings exploring the turmoil on the outer vortex, particularly in regards to the 'madness' I see happening with CSG mining on prime food producing farmland. AND, regular readers will know my thoughts there!

OUTER VORTEX
Yet, my paintings exploring the turmoil of the outer vortex are not ugly...well I don't think they are! I see beauty as offering hope. I cannot see the point in creating more ugliness or reminding people of it in an unrelenting way. There's enough in the mass media to remind us of the plunderous and degrading activities which the human race has inflicted upon the Earth. Image after image, seemingly imploring for enlightened solutions lose their impact after awhile. We become desensitised and in the process we feel neutered, as if the problems are SO huge there is no way we can make a difference. Now.... this is where beauty has the power to uplift as it reminds people of paradise... that if beauty can still exist, even in imagination, the potential to resurrect any 'paradise lost' is still there.

One painting of the 'madness', which will be in VORTEX, is the painting below, called $oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! This painting questions value by using small $ signs to signify water, soil and coal. It's prophecy is not attractive, yet I feel that beauty still stretches its hand out through the turmoil to the viewer, in a way which stimulates hope rather than destroying it. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

As I have written a number of times before, I prefer to consciously elide ugliness. This means that ugliness, and all its contingent erosive attributes, exists in absentia in my work, thus negating criticisms of naivity. Indeed, as regular readers of this BLOG know, I have spent many years living in rural Queensland, and whilst I am not a soil or water expert, I do arrive at this point in my life, with decades of practical experience and observations, which are visually parley in my paintings.

I have previously written about beauty http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/beauty.html

$oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! Oil on linen 70 x 100 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

VORTEX CORE

The painting at the top of the page 'Finding the Light' and the three paintings below, were all inspired by my imaginatings of what it might be like to be present inside a vortex at its core. The first time I closed my eyes and imagined the stillness, I felt calm. As I have written before, this stillness offers a quiet where we can hear things we did not know we could hear, see things we did not know we could see, and feel things we did not know we could feel. For me this beautiful sentient place is a place of hope, where the human race may find answers to questions it did not know to ask.

Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2010

                           http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

Colour Of Stillness Oil on linen 100 x 60 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/knowledge-of-stillness.html

                                                                  Hovering At The Centre Oil on lnen 30 x 30 cm

                               http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/hovering.html

SUPERCONDUCTORS

If art can trigger the collective imagination, to take us to places of stillness where hearing, seeing and feeling things we were previously unaware of is possible, then art could be called a superconductor!

Here's an explanation from http://www.superconductors.org/INdex.htm of what a superconductor literally is:

If art can be seen as a superconductor, we can now think about what might create resistence to render it impotent and inert. Maybe ugliness, in a way which regurgitates mass media's reportage, is one resistor? And, maybe beauty is a potent transistor?

Concepts like this tickle my imagination and have done so for a long time. My Dad is a HAM radio enthusiast and I grew up with electronic bits and pieces, plus our farm was uniquely identifiable by Dad's tall aerials. Our cars were always equipped with HAM radios, Dad made our first TV in the early 60s, and our first record player also. Here's some info for those of you who do not know what HAM radio is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio  AND...One of my brothers is in IT and his current specialty is supercomputing.

In another post I will write about art and its potential to be a superconductor for cultural diplomacy. Unfortunately, 'show and tell' type attitudes are resistors. I draw some of my thoughts from my own experiences exhibiting in London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Seoul.

VORTEX

22 Feb - 6 March 2011:  Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane. I will be at the exhibition daily 10 am -6 pm, so it is a chance for me to chat to people. I had a great time chatting at my exhibition FRISSON in March this year.

Cheers,

Kathryn

http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

http://twitter.com/brimblecombe  [Follow me!]

http://au.linkedin.com/in/kathrynbrimblecombe