Seven artists at The Bays art show
Seven local artists will participate in The Bays Community Group's annual Wine, Cheese and Art evening and exhibition.
The Wine, Cheese and Art Evening will be held at The Bays Community Hall from 7:30pm on Friday, July 21.
The Bays Community Group member Mr Jim Doe said: "The Wine and Cheese Evening started off as a way to promote our beautiful area and for neighbours to get together, with all the funds raised from the night going towards maintenance and upkeep works for the community hall.
"The inclusion of artwork from local artists was another way to promote the bays and showcase local talent," he said.
The seven featured artists for 2017's Evening are Ms Leasha Craig, Ms Naomi Veitch, Mr Joseph Rolella, Ms Katerina Apale, Mr Boyd McMillan, Mr Glenn Doyle and Ms Kelly-Anne Love.
Select works from the seven artists will be on display for the evening, and for the The Bays Community Group Art Show from 10am to 4pm at the hall on Saturday, July 22, and Sunday, July 23.
Mr Doe said the art show attracted residents and visitors alike to view a collection of work from both established and emerging artistic talents.
Tickets to the wine and cheese evening are available through The Bays Community Group.
Entry to the art show is by gold coin donation with refreshments available.
Funds from both events will be channelled into upkeep projects at the hall.
Ms Craig is a contemporary artist whose professional practise encompasses both 3D and 2D disciplines.
Ms Craig completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts honours degree at the University of Newcastle in 2012.
She said her experience at university gave her the opportunity to explore all the disciplines both conceptually and technically and fuelled her desire to sculpt.
Ms Craig has achieved numerous successes since graduating including, several solo exhibitions, participating in numerous group exhibitions and being nominated for and winning art prizes.
Ms Veitch learned to sling a brush signwriting, which awoke her passion for the arts and prompted her to open eNVy Artworkz, her own art and design business.
Ms Vietch is currently painting for an upcoming exhibition, completing commissioned portraits and runs art workshops for locals.
Mr Rolella obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts honours degree before going on to complete his Masters in the field in 1994-1998 and has since held solo and group exhibitions around Australia.
He has enjoyed a successful career as an artist and has won several prestigious awards for his work including the Hills Grammar Art Prize, The Cricket Art Prize and the Oakhill Grammar Art Prize.
Mr Rolella has works in collections across the country including the Park Royal, the Australian Art Investment Trust and the Bundanoon Trust Collection.
Ms Apale and Ms Love are two passionate women who have ended up on the Peninsula living their lives as professional artists.
Both women claim a strong, distinct sense of self and style that is consistently reflected in their bold, colourful artworks with a subject matter that reflects their love and compassion for flora and fauna.
The pair have come from different backgrounds and were encouraged in different ways.
Ms Apale was born in Riga, Latvia, but refers to herself not as Latvian, but as a "person of the world".
Her mother was a successful artist and Ms Apale grew up in a world immersed in painting.
Surrounded by paints, brushes, and canvases, Ms Apale was encouraged at the age of three to pick up a brush and begin to learn the art of painting.
Painting, as far as her mother was concerned, was a skill that was as important as learning to read.
All her life she was encouraged and taught to refine her skills and artistic expression.
After school she went on to receive a Masters in Fine Arts.
Following this, she received a grant to study in Berlin and subsequently became an expert in using the Tc-1 Jacquard Loom.
By 2014 Ms Apale, now married and a mother of two, decided to have a complete change of scenery.
Moving to Australia, she fell in love with the Peninsula.
She wasted little time joining the art community and getting straight to exhibiting which is where she met Ms Love and the pair became fast friends through their shared passion.
Ms Love was born in Australia but spent most of her childhood moving from house to house, school to school and one country to another with her family.
Ms Love was always an imaginative soul and was always getting messy creating or drawing something.
Living in Australia, England and the United States, she was able to explore different histories, cultures and people.
After returning to Australia Ms Love went on to achieve a Diploma in Design Fundamentals and Graphic Design before travelling the world.
In 2002 she fell in love with the Bays and finally settled down, somewhat, marrying a local man.
Upon having her children, she realised it was time break free of previous self-doubt and of traditional styles and so she set up a tiny studio with little to no money or tools, two young children at her side.
Both women are successful selling artists.
In the past five years, Mr McMillan, has grown into a method of working with landscape motifs to make large on site drawings using manufactured and found elements, studio paintings and with concepts of metamorphosis to make sculptures that extend and transform natural elements.
"My process is loosely based on drawing in isolated bushland locations to gain the fullest understanding and context," Mr McMillan said.
"These works may be completed artworks in themselves and then evolve through drawing and maquette into paintings or sculpture that transforms the landscape experience into other elements and themes.
"I have been on and around the ocean since infancy so landscape elements are often transformed within a maritime context.
"I combine a dual career as an artist and landscape architect deeply influenced by the landscape aesthetic of China and Japan and allow an eclectic mix of techniques and elements shape and influence my artwork," he added.
Mr Doyle is a sculptor whose most notable work is featured at the Big Dig Site, The Rocks, where Mr Doyle has brought the ghosts of animals past at this 18th century European settlement to life through wire sculpture.
These artists will be available to discuss their careers and works in the art show at various times throughout the two-day event.
SOURCES:
Interview, 3 Jul 2017
Jim Doe, The Bays Community Group
Newsletter, 3 Jul 2017
Cathy Gleeson, The Bays Community Group
Reporter: Dilon Luke