Struggling to find a reason to get out of bed each chilly morning? Exhibitions by award-winning photographer John Gollings, surreal landscapist Christopher Lees, and farmer-turned-sculptor Jordan Sprigg will get you motivated and ready to face the cold.
Christopher Lees
Christopher's artworks show no picturesque European gardens or manicured lawns, rather gnarled, craggy, primeval escarpments that plummet into the abyss.
Current Works by Christopher Lees, Margaret River Gallery, September.
Water and Dreams by Christopher Lees. Oil on canvas, 137x183cm.
Betty Punami
Betty Pumani's latest body of work depicts her mother's country of Antara, a site northwest of Mimili community. An important rockhole lies there, where women perform the inmaku pakani – a dance ceremony related to the maku (witchetty grub). The natural features of the surrounding landscape – the rocks, rockholes, creeks and mountains – can be seen throughout her paintings.
Betty Pumani, Tunbridge Gallery, July 3-17.
Antara by Betty Pumani. Acrylic on linen, 153x92cm.
Mikaeka Castledine
Last year, 2013 Sculpture by the Sea Scholarship winner Mikaela Castledine used her award grant to travel to Myanmar for the first time. The result is an exhibition that capture the images, ideas and objects from a lost country (Myanmar is the country once known as Burma).
Reliquaries, Linton and Kay Galleries, Subiaco, July 25-August 9.
Under the Bamboo Leaves by Mikaela Casteldine. Collage on board, 405x505mm.
Grandmother's Country by Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi. Acrylic on canvas, 175x95cm.
Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi
Gabriella paints aspects of her country using a free-flowing form of traditional icons to depict the bush. Flora and fauna, water courses, bush tucker and people are connected through subtly detailed dotting reminiscent of her father, the late, great Clifford Possum Tjapaltajarri.
Desert Colour, ABORIGINART Indigenous Fine Art Gallery, July.
Joanne Duffy
Award-winning local artist Joanne Duffy paints with a passion for the natural world, merging the actual with echoes of memory. Her latest body of work explores the quiet, ancient domains found in our vast WA landscape. Our sandstone coast, limestone caves, the granite outcrops, and sweeping saltpans all become sources of inspiration for this winter collection.
Stone – Winter Collection, DiVerse Studio, until July.
Remaining Light II by Joanne Duffy. Oil on Belgian linen, 112x137cm.
Ken Gailer
Ken Gailer refers to his landscape paintings as 'windows to the world'. These works are reflections of the Australian landscape, painted from both memory and photographs. Minutely detailed panels, juxtaposed with expansive passages of sky and water, they explore the moods, colours and constantly varying patterns of the world in which we live. Mixed exhibition, Yallingup Galleries, ongoing.
Coastal Cloudscape by Ken Gailer. Mixed media on board, 85x85cm.
Michael Vincent Murphy
Michael describes himself as a 'painter of imagined reality'. His creative process is ever-changing; never knowing what direction his muse will take him in, his subject matter often shifts from still life, to landscape, to the slightly surreal. His eclectic works join others in this winter joint exhibition.
Mixed exhibition, Gunyulgup Galleries, ongoing.
Berries by Michael Vincent Murphy. Acrylic on canvas, 38x61cm.
John Lacey
John Lacey has painted for more than 30 years in various media, now concentrating on oil. His style is expressive contemporary landscape, bordering on the abstract without losing a sense of place. He loves especially the northern WA landscapes of the Kimberley and Pilbara.
New Works by John Lacey, Gallows Gallery, July 23-August 9.
Reflecting Late Light – El Questro by John Lacey. Oil on canvas, 76x101cm.
John Gollings
Australia's most celebrated architectural photographer, John Gollings presents a hauntingly composed, hidden Australian landscape. The series shows the Australian landscape after bushfires burnt across Victoria in 2009, and reflects the power of nature.
Fremantle Arts Centre, until July 26.
.jpg)
877.00M E 145° 12' 31.12' S 037° 25' 15.95' by John Gollings (2009). Pigment dye, inkjet print on Hahnemuhle photo rag paper, 110x165cm. Image courtesy of the artist. © John Gollings.
Jordan Sprigg
A self-taught artist, Jordan Sprigg grew up on a farm in the wheatbelt, where he spent his early years drawing machines, monsters and animals. Taught by his father to weld, the artist became obsessed with using the wealth of the family farm's scrap-metal collection to create sculptures. He aims primarily to capture the form, character and personality of each animal he creates.
Jahroc Galleries, ongoing.
Red Deer by Jordan Sprigg. Scrap metal, retired tools and machine parts, 240x300cm