As an avid reader of Country Style magazine since we first purchased our modest country estate I am absolutely delighted to be invited to be invited to be part of this group show at Michael Reid Murrurundi which is in collaboration with Country Style magazine.
The art gallery Michael Reid Murrurundi and Country Style magazine have creatively collaborated for many years so it seemed the perfect pairing to undertaking a major painting exhibition at Murrurundi in March 2020 to coincide with a Country Style’s major Art issue.
The focus of the exhibition the The Country Interior. A painterly survey of the contemporary country house – that inside part of something much bigger. That domestic environment we retreat back-into; those rooms that we show case our lives from; that room from which we enjoy family and friends. The Country Interior will be an uplifting and diverse selection of artworks from significant Australian painters, all working with the interior and Still Life painting. I would be exhibiting alongside such amazing Australia women artists as Jane Aliendi, Elizabeth Barnett, Brooke Dalton, Esther Eckley, Louise Frith, Anna May Henry, Andrea Huelin, Stacey McCall, Anh Nguyen, Anna Placidi, Kate Summers Stef Tarasov, Sue Tesoriero, Melanie Vugich, Christine Webb, Laura White and Lucila Zenter.
I have to admit after such a brutal summer it was quite difficult to find something uplifting the paint. The garden was dead, the animals were suffering, we had been supplementing their diet for a while, the air was alternately thick with either dust storms or bushfire smoke depending on which way the wind was blowing. I was only when the grevillea robusta AKA silky oak bloomed that there was a glimmer of hope. It was full of birds during the day and gliders and possums at night. It had to be painted! I paired it with our eastern rosellas and a vase pointed out to me by the acclaimed ceramicist Chester Nealie.
As an extra bit of excitement, just as I was delivering my China Cabinet of Curiosities to Michael Reid Sydney on Monday planning to stay overnight and head back Tuesday I got a phone call from the editor of Country Style magazine saying they wanted to come visit on Wednesday to take photos of our place and could I send them some photos of our garden. I had to tell her that it was pretty much dead. So we raced home Tuesday thinking about the state the house was in pre exhibition and wondering how we were going to “Country Style” it in less than 12 hours when the photographer rang with a reprieve of an extra day. The Thursday the very lovely Abbie Melle arrived on a day when we had both a dust storm and bushfire smoke. The sky was orange, it was baking hot, but we had done it… the house looked it’s best (thanks to the shed in the backyard where everything got shoved for the photoshoot). I am so excited to be in the Art edition of Country Style magazine, it is the perfect Birthday month present.
