Where Art Meets Science

Millennium Artists:

5^th Nov 2011 –27^th Nov 2011

Botanical paintings & Drawings

Millennium Artists are a workshop group of internationally exhibited and award winning artists from Sydney, South Coast and Southern Highlands, mentored by local artist Jennifer Small. They are widely represented in public and private collections in Australia, England, Europe, USA, Japan and South Africa.

Their art works include:
classic examples of the Botanic Art genre
scientific studies and microscope work
botanic studies in pencil, pen and ink
handmade cards and prints

The artists will be available during exhibition weekends to answer questions about their work.

COREY RANKIN - STUDIO WORK 25th June - 30th July 2011

OPENING

Saturday 25th June 2011

2pm

The origins of my Studio Work exhibition lie in experimentation with controlled lighting and pictorial design in inner-city warehouses during the mid-to-late nineties in Sydney. Building on a desire to learn the arcane technicalities of electronic strobe lighting, I began to deeply explore the artistic side of studio photography, which has developed into the art on show at Gallery Chiron today.

More than just simple product shots, each photograph has been infused with a multidimensionality, using complex arrangements of highly reflective and difficult to photograph subjects, multiple exposures, specialist focusing techniques, and painstakingly arranged transparent and translucent items, sometimes all at once. I call this work ‘photographic art’, differentiating it from what is commonly perceived as photography in today’s digitally obsessed world of instant gratification and push-button deletion.

All of my work has been created in a small dark room late at night, under the influence of the moon and the stars, using a medium format film camera and slide film, and printed using traditional and digital methods. Please enjoy.

NICK BROWN - Battered Suitcase / 14th - 27th March

OPENING: Saturday 19th March  /  3pm - 5pm

Experience images of the familiar and the unfamiliar from some of the most remote, unique and iconic locations around the world. The exhibition brings together a selection of photos from Nicholas’ travels to Antarctica, the Pacific, Africa, South-East Asia, Australia and North America. 

Come along to seek inspiration for your next adventure with your own ‘Battered Suitcase’.

Artist's statement:

When I started working as an Earth Scientist in 2006, I didn’t own a passport. Since then, I have worked in every State and Territory of Australia and travelled to 21 countries throughout Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, North America and Antarctica. I use satellite technology to measure plate tectonic motion, changes in sea levels due to climate change and variations in the Earth’s gravity field. Although the purpose of most of my travelling has been for work as an Earth Scientist, my camera is never far away.

My passion for photography began on a trip to Antarctica; without a doubt the most astounding place I have been fortunate enough to visit. I lived there for 4 months in the summer of 2006/07, spending weeks on end camping out on remote rock outcrops and glaciers, often being more than 500 km from the next nearest person. I wanted to capture the essence of the place to show to family and friends. Although it was an impossible task, I believe I was at least able to give loved ones a snap shot of what my life was like.

Ever since I have continued to try and sum up a place in a picture. Sometimes it is the landscape, sometimes the people. Whatever it is, the picture always reminds me of a story, and how I felt. That is the beauty of photography.

 

Nick talking about his work at the opening.

 

LEXIE WATT - 24th January - 4th March 2011

Wearing two hats in my working life, I work as a pathology sister 3 days a week and try to paint the rest of the week.  I have tried many art forms over the years and each has given something which lends itself to the next one or gives an understanding to the execution of the present one.

Teaching and Exhibiting Porcelain Painting at an international level for close on 25 years has left its impression on how I approach my current love, watercolours and ink. Working in washes and lots of detail many times over. My porcelain was given a chapter in Trish Bradfords book Porcelain a Fine Art.

Printmaking came along about 10 yrs ago and even though I don’t do traditional prints any more, monoprints and embossing of brass, aluminium and copper[oxidised] feature quite a bit. I use my love of the Australian bush and its wonderful array of beautiful leaves, bark and flowers for inspiration. I love to paint the old weathered and scarred over the youthful blooms and fresh leaves.

Writing and illustrating “CHOOKIES”- my first published Children’s  Picture Book came out at the end of 2009 by Little Steps Publishing. This was nominated by the publisher for the Children’s Book Council of Australia Awards 2010. Although not in the last 10 was very exciting to be nominated. Chookies went into reprint in 2010. It is about 2 chooks escaping getting locked in a dress shop overnight, their capture escape and recapture. Based on a true story in my sister and brother in laws shop in Kiama .A second book about  2 naughty  white cockies Where is my Dinner? Is submitted and waiting for a yes from a publisher. A sequel to Chookies is also well on the way to completition.

2003 2^nd Wyong Watercolour Art Prize

2004 runner up Kiwi Watercolour Art Prize Wollongong Art Gallery

2009 Solo Exhibition Parklife Gallery Stanwell Park

2009 Large commission to frame one 3mt by 1mt mirror in oxidised, embossed copper and 21 paintings and another 3mt by 1mt mirror with oxidised and embossed copper in the corporate dining room at Tumbling Waters Resort at Stanwell Tops.

2010 Solo Exhibition at Eden Gardens North Ryde

2010 runner up Kiwi Watercolour Art Prize Wollongong Art Gallery