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

"MIST" a celebration of what makes Robertson unique - you could even say our MIST-ique . . .

We will also be celebrating 

the 1 year anniversary 

of the opening 

of the ROBERTSON DOCTOR !

27th November 2010 - 14th January 2011

you are invited to our opening

Saturday 27th 11am

works by:

the good people of Robertson

Denis Wilson

Steve Fearnley

Judy Benjamin
Liz Boothby

Pi Wei Lim

Welcome to the celebration of our first year of operation here at the Robertson Doctor. 

This exhibition has two themes, that of the MIST and of MAPS.  One obscures and the other signifies a path through the obscurity.  A map by no means represents the opposite of obscurity and doesn’t somehow illuminate the landscape, but it does show us a way, a way to get through it - and in this task it is a good companion to have in the mist.

Over the past 6 months I have invited all patients who attend this clinic to draw maps on the left over paper from scripts written here.  This exhibition represents all the journeys made to the Robertson Doctor, in our first year.  Each journey being like a little thread that links us to the place where it originated.....a line, a path, from you to me . . . A relationship.

The local artists representing the forces of obscurity are: Liz Boothby’s “Sanctuary” at reception.  Steve Fearnley with his oils on cupboard door panels as well as quite a few of the sound tracks you will hear now playing in the waiting room gallery.  Judy Benjamin using a very old encaustic method of paint application, Denis Wilson’s, “faces in the bush” capturing what the map doesn’t as you take a walk in our local bush.

I invite you all today to linger a little longer on these two themes and what they could mean in the context of Medicine and healing.  In medicine we are criss-crossed with a multitude of therapeutic guidelines, clinical pathways, care pathways, best practice guidelines, critical pathways, to name but a few.  

Now consider the MISTery that is the human body.  Despite all that science can see and explain about the human body, its chemistry, anatomy, physiology, cells, organs, fluids, tissues, bacteria, pathogens . . . . are but pointers to the greater sum of these parts.  Perhaps just a map?

No matter how detailed, a map is not the landscape, and it is not the journey, but it can be useful as we venture into unknown territory.  What use is a map if you have not the will or courage to put one foot in front of the other and venture forth?  What use is a map if you don’t have your wits about you and neglect to avoid a fallen tree across the road or miss a shining rainbow? A good map doesn’t even guarantee your safe arrival!  But would we refuse a map if we were given the choice to have one on our journey? 

If medical science offers a kind of map, perhaps the healing is the journey, YOUR journey, the act of putting one foot in front of the other, moment to moment, day to day and simply showing up to the MISTery.

I’d like to thank you all for welcoming us to this community and coming to celebrate this day with us and now invite you to all partake in our MISTery birthday cake!

Mental Health Month & Triple Care Farm art therapy exhibition - more than just an art class

This year the theme is RESILIENCE.  How do we build our resilience in the good times to keep us bouyant in the tough times?  Are we aware of the mechanisms and simply daily choices that support our happiness?  If we or someone is spiralling down the road to self harm or suicide would we know how to help them?

During Mental Health Month Gallery Chiron and the Robertson Doctor are running a free speaking program with an exhibition of art therapy work from Triple Care Farm.  We invite the local community to invest in your own wellbeing.  Take a moment when the going's good to strengthen the ties to what nourishes us as individuals and a community.

Everyone Welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FREE speaker series

Wednesday 6th October 6pm

Dee Neveling (resident Psychologist at the Robertson Doctor): Don’t worry be Happy

Wednesday 13th October 6pm

Sandra Bolack: Towards a Suicide safe community.

Wednesday 20th October 6pm + Triple Care Farm art exhibition opening afterwards

Marie Rose: Art Therapy more than just an art class

Sunday 31st October 11am

Anastasia Yatras: Yoga practice and life practice. Wear comfortable clothes to try out some easy yoga poses to support your daily life.

Some photos of the Triple Care Farm exhibition with Marie Rose and the young artists.

the MAGIC of CLAY / 15th August - 15th October

 Join us for the OPENING on Sunday 15th August at 11am for fairy bread and popcorn.

Warning: your hands may get dirty.

"Six year old Zoe shapes ammonite "feet" upon a shallow vessel"  

In 2010 local ceramicist Celeste Coucke started opening her Cloud Farm Studio once a month to the general public as well as running clay making workshops during the week for both adults and children.  This exhibition shows off the most recent creations form her magic of clay workshops.  As a regular attendee of the clay workshops I find I learn so much from the children’s works because they have such a directness and immediacy as the form scrambles, scuttles, and scoots to be born in space.

To re-quote Picasso “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”