Artists from around the world come to study and work in Paris, but Christine Maudy moved from Paris to Australia to become a full time artist.
"Life in Paris is very hectic. I was a fashion designer running my own company and I had no time for my children or my art. I moved to Queensland 11 years ago to change my pace of life and focus solely on my painting," says Christine.
She was in Dubai for the opening of an exhibition organised by the Australian Trade Commission and was happy to be part of an event featuring Australian artists.
Hosted by the Mondo Arte Gallery at the Mall of the Emirates, the exhibition titled A Gift of Colour showcases the work of eight artists based in Queensland and gives Dubai's art lovers a taste of contemporary Australian art.
"Australia is an island nation and for a long time Australian art tended to be insular, featuring landscapes and traditional aborigine symbols that only Australians could relate to. But today, we are well connected with the world and open to new ideas. Even traditional aborigine art has evolved with the times and contemporary Australian art is vibrant, varied and truly international," says Christine.
This is evident from the creativity and diversity of the artworks on display. The artists have experimented with a variety of media and techniques to create visually interesting and thought provoking pieces, ranging from colourful modern abstracts to polyurethane foam sculptures.
Christine's paintings in the show are abstract works inspired by her recent travels to India and China. Within the simple lines one can see bits of Chinese calligraphy, pieces of gold leaf paper from India and sharp contrasts of bright yellows, oranges and reds.
"Rather than recreating the architecture or landscape of various places, I try to focus on details that convey my feelings and impressions about them. Being a fashion designer, I am interested in textures, colours and contrasts and always collect swatches of interesting materials from places I visit and include them in my paintings. I loved the colours I saw in India, especially the saffron robes of the monks. I was obsessed with yellow and orange for a long time after this trip," she said.
"I also find Dubai fascinating. I would love to explore the city and the surrounding desert and come back someday with an exhibition of paintings on my impressions of Dubai."
Nature's hues
While Christine is inspired by her travels, Ian Smith likes to depict the coastal bush landscape typical of Australia's coastline in his pastels.
But rather than a natural representation of trees and other features, he focuses on the unexpected changing colours of the bush. Titles such as Sunburst, Dirt track out of the blue and Just white express his fascination with the play of colours in nature.
Henry Mulholland, who migrated from Northern Ireland to Australia three decades ago, also explores the various moods of nature through his oil on linen abstracts. The seemingly random splashes of colour on his canvases seek to recreate the aesthetic harmonies in nature.
References to the natural world - of storms, seas, palm trees and animals - can also be seen in the work of Mostyn Bramley-Moore. The simple lines in his brightly coloured paintings speak volumes.
"My paintings are inspired by philosophical ideas, personal experiences or observations that intrigue me. There is a sense of playfulness in my work and I do not believe that my paintings have to be logical or rational," says the artist who is director of the Queensland College of Art in Brisbane.
Rodney Simmons, on the other hand, describes himself as a painter-poet working without words, images or normal modes of communication. "My paintings may appear to be awkward scrawls of line and colour, but they take months of merciless self-criticism to complete and evolve into a multilayered statement that is wild, torn, out of control yet lyrical and soothing," he says.
The contrast between nature and man-made forms is what fascinates Daniel Tobin. He is the founder and director of Urban Art Projects in Brisbane and is displaying a series of colour prints on anodised aluminium along with wood and steel sculptures titled Communications Tower. The prints depict a typical tower, which is now part of every urban landscape. The artist expresses the fact that the structure, location and design of the towers are determined purely by technical and functional needs. Yet, his prints and the accompanying sculptures made from rough blocks of wood and gleaming steel seek the beauty in these forms.
Nicole Voevodin-Cash also interprets nature in her own way. The innovative artist has experimented with a variety of materials such as soil and turf in her artworks. Her latest series of landscapes titled Wallflowers and Flowerbeds set out to investigate and create new environments within an existing landscape such as an art gallery. Themed around lilies, roses and orchids, these geometric sculptures, hand-cut from polyurethane foam and covered with white felt, have been created specifically for the Mondo Arte gallery and respond to its interior whiteness, vast space and cubical structure.
No exhibition of Australian art can be complete without a touch of "dreaming" and that is what Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox brings to A Gift of Colour. Her vibrant and profound paintings focus on the primal and positive elements of life that are universal and capture the rhythms of the earth. Kathryn uses forms in nature as metaphors for deeper messages. Her mountains symbolise resilience in the face of adversity and her iconic Tree of life speaks of the energy within the earth, of human connections and the richness of nature.
Kathryn is the only one among the eight artists to have exhibited in the UAE before and, in fact, helped the Australian Trade Commission to put this exhibition together.
"Kathryn has helped us to get the most accomplished and award-winning artists from Queensland to showcase the best of contemporary Australian art. We chose colour as the theme for our first art show in Dubai because not only does it represent the multicultural influences and varied landscapes in Australia, but also reflects the vibrancy of Dubai," says Asha James, business development manager for the Australian Trade Commission. Peter Linford, consul general and senior trade commissioner at the Australian Trade Commission adds: "It is exciting for us to be part of Dubai's burgeoning art scene and we plan to have more such exhibitions."
- A Gift of Colour, featuring eight Australian artists, will
continue at Mondo Arte gallery at the Mall of the Emirates until December 6. The artworks range from Dh5,000 to Dh10,000. The gallery is open from 10am to 10pm on weekdays and until midnight from Thursday to Saturday.
