Exhibition dates: 31st October – 31st December 2015
David Moore (Australian, b. 1965)
Winter sky
2015
Oil on linen
© Courtesy of the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
The State of Victoria has some truly wonderful regional galleries. I hadn’t been to Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum for a few years and I had forgotten what an absolutely stunning gallery it is. Stylish art deco building, diffused natural light filling the expansive spaces of the wood floored galleries, displaying interesting art works from their collection. I particularly liked the Edward J Shearsby, Ethel Carrick, John Perceval and, my favourite, a most glorious Sydney Long Pastoral scene (1909, below).
To top off an inspirational visit, there was the most beautiful exhibition of small oil on canvas and oil on cedar panel paintings by the artist David Moore: Glimpses of Chewton. These works had me entranced. Comprised of three years work, these paintings are an exploration of the region by the artist who bought a house in the area with his partner. Moore set out to discover Chewton through driving the local roads and by doing small paintings of the views… not the big vista but the small glimpse. As I said to Moore in a recent telephone conversation, small vibrations of energy.
You can really feel that the artist has captured the frequency – and by that I mean the song line – and spiritual energy of the landscape. These are strong paintings with sensuous brush work yet they are quiet and still in their presence before you – sensitive and beautiful. I love the size of them, like small jewels, and they draw you in and hold you. The gridded hang is especially effective. For an artist to feel these vibrations of energy is one thing, for it then to be transferred into the art is an entirely, and difficult, other. The correspondence between Moore’s work and the Sydney Long Pastoral scene is quite delicious to contemplate. Apparently, these were supposed to be preparatory sketches for larger studio based work, which will eventuate over time, but once Moore had started on these “glimpses” he kept going, creating this body of work. I am so thankful that he did, and I am grateful that I visited the gallery to see them. They made my day.
Do yourself a favour, take a day trip to Castlemaine. It’s well worth the visit.
Dr Marcus Bunyan
Many thankx to Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum and David Moore for allowing me to publish the art work in the posting. All photographs © Marcus Bunyan, the artist and Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.
Installation photograph of David Moore’s exhibition Glimpses of Chewton at the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum
Photos: Marcus Bunyan
David Moore (Australian, b. 1965)
Hillside shadows (installation view)
2015
Oil on cedar panel
© Courtesy of the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
David Moore (Australian, b. 1965)
Clear sky (installation view)
2015
Oil on cedar panel
© Courtesy of the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
David Moore (Australian, b. 1965)
Approaching storm (installation view)
2015
Oil on linen
© Courtesy of the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
David Moore (Australian, b. 1965)
Stormy sky (installation view)
2015
Oil on linen
© Courtesy of the artist and James Makin Gallery, Melbourne
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
David Moore: Glimpses of Chewton
An exhibition of works painted in and around the town of Chewton, in North Central Victoria. Local artist David Moore is one of Australia’s foremost painters and was a recipient of the A.M.E Bale Residental Scholarship and the Norman Kaye award. He teaches painting in Melbourne, and is represented by Chrysalis Galleries in Melbourne.
About the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum
Founded in 1913, the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum has a unique collection of Australian art and fascinating historical artefacts reflecting the early history of the district. The beautiful art deco building, dating from 1931 with several extensions since then, is a work of art itself, with purpose-built galleries, lit largely by natural lighting.
The Gallery and Museum is fully accredited by Museums Australia. It is governed by private trustees and managed by a committee elected by subscribers. State and local government support is provided, and the Gallery has a strong tradition of support from benefactors, local families, artists and patrons.
Sydney Long (Australian, 1871-1955)
Pastoral scene (installation view)
1909
Oil on cardboard
Gift of Lady Mary Spencer 1949
Photos: Marcus Bunyan
Formerly known as Narrabeen landscape, this painting has been retitled due to uncertainty in its depiction of Narrabeen.
With paintings such as this, Long sought to produce works of the most imaginative kind from his surroundings. A panoramic vista, the artist focused on the patterns of light and shade over the landscape to create a sense of depth, leading the viewer’s eye to the blue hills in the background.
Sydney Long (Australian, 1871-1955)
Pastoral scene (installation view detail)
1909
Oil on cardboard
Gift of Lady Mary Spencer 1949
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Edward J Shearsby (active c. 1900-1930 Melbourne)
An Impression of Collins Street (installation view)
c. 1910
Oil on board
Estate of Barbara H Gordon 1999
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
The high viewpoint and bustling street are similar to Pissarro’s Boulevard Montmartre, morning, cloudy weather 1897 in the National Gallery of Victoria. Impressionism had an enormous influence on Australian artists from the late 19th century, mostly in the form of reproductions brought back by expatriate artists.
Edward J Shearsby (active c. 1900-1930 Melbourne)
An Impression of Collins Street (installation view detail)
c. 1910
Oil on board
Estate of Barbara H Gordon 1999
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Frederick McCubbin (Australian, 1855-1917)
Golden sunlight (installation view)
1914
Oil on canvas
Gift of Dame Nellie Melba 1923
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Frederick McCubbin (Australian, 1855-1917)
Golden sunlight (installation view detail)
1914
Oil on canvas
Gift of Dame Nellie Melba 1923
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
The setting is below the artist’s family home on the Yarra River, South Yarra. Instead of the sight of the industrial stone crusher on the opposite bank, McCubbin has created an Arcadian fantasy of colour and light. Dame Nellie Melba possibly bought the work when she visited the McCubbin’s during an Australian tour. Melba’s father, David Mitchell, had an interest in a local Newstead mine and she visited the Gallery collection prior to donating.
The artist has used a ‘scumble’ technique: building up many layers of thinly applied paint giving a transparent effect. The composition was fist sketched in white and sienna, followed by pigment mixed on the palette and applied with a knife and brush handle to keep the colours pure. Later the work was rubbed with a pumice stone to give a smooth surface. Colours from different layers were allowed to show through. Highlights were applied over the top with paint straight from the tube.
E Phillips Fox (Australian, 1865-1915)
On the Mediterranean Coast (installation view)
c. 1911
Oil on canvas
Presented 1935
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Ethel Carrick (Australian, 1872-1952)
Untitled (Royal Avenue, Versailles) (installation view)
c. 1909
Oil on panel
Gift of Major B R F MacNay 1978
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Ethel Carrick (Australian, 1872-1952)
Untitled (Royal Avenue, Versailles) (installation view detail)
c. 1909
Oil on panel
Gift of Major B R F MacNay 1978
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Lina Bryans (Australian, 1909-2000)
Plum Tree (installation view)
1947
Oil on composition board
Purchased with funds from the Felix Cappy Bequest in his memory, 2014
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Probably painted at Stanhope House, Eltham by the font gate near the cedar tree overlooking the old orchard on the property.
Lina Bryans (Australian, 1909-2000)
Plum Tree (installation view detail)
1947
Oil on composition board
Purchased with funds from the Felix Cappy Bequest in his memory, 2014
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Lina Bryans (Australian, 1909-2000)
A modernist, Bryans was associated with Frater’s circle which included Ada May Plante and Isabel Hunter Tweddle. Her first works were painted early in 1937 and Basil Burdett selected her Backyards, South Yarra in 1938 for the Herald Exhibition of Outstanding Pictures of 1937. Her work was included in Burdett’s article in Studio (1938) and in the exhibition, Art of Australia 1788-1941, shown at MoMA (New York) in 1941. Bryans went to live in Darebin Bridge House, a converted coach-house at Darebin, in the late 1930s, joining Ada May Plante. Bryans subsequently purchased it using her inheritance, painted and decorated it distinctively and named it “The Pink Hotel”. It became an artists’ colony for Bryans, Plante, Frater, Ambrose Hallen and Ian Fairweather and other artists. It was a centre for a group of writers associated with the journal Meanjin, from whom Lina’s son Edward developed his interest in journalism.
In 1948 Bryans had her first solo exhibition. It included Nude (1945, NGV) and Portrait of Nina Christesen (1947), both painted at Darebin, which she sold later that year and moved to Harkaway, near Berwick. She took a few lessons from George Bell in 1948 and from Mary Cockburn Mercer in 1951. In 1953 she went to America, then to France where she studied for a few months at La Grande Chaumière and visited Mercer in the south of France. Back at Melbourne, she once more became prominent in the city’s artistic and cultural milieu.
Landscape painting was always important to Bryans and throughout the 1960s and 1970s, it became more dramatic and abstract. In 1965 she visited Central Australia and painted extremely colourful modernist paintings of the Australian bush. She was awarded the 1966 Crouch Prize for Embedded Rock (1964, BFAG). Her major work Landscape Quartet from her second solo exhibition, held at Georges Gallery in 1966, was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria, which awarded her a retrospective in 1982, held at Banyule Gallery in 1982, which subsequently toured regional galleries in Victoria.
Nevertheless, as Forwood notes (2001), her portraits ‘best reveal her contribution to Australian art’, moreover, ‘her seventy-three portraits of friends engaged in the world of art and letters form a pictorial biography of Bryans herself’. Her well-known portrait of Australian writer Jean May Campbell, The Babe is Wise, (named after Campbell’s novel of the year before) was painted in 1940. It is held in the National Gallery of Victoria collection.
Text from the Wikipedia website
John Perceval (Australian, 1923-2000)
Double Sunset (installation view)
1961
Oil on composition board
Purchased 1962
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
John Perceval (Australian, 1923-2000)
Double Sunset (installation view detail)
1961
Oil on composition board
Purchased 1962
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Charles Blackman (Australian, 1928-2018)
Dream Image (installation view)
1963
Oil on canvas on composition board
Purchased 1964
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Charles Blackman (Australian, 1928-2018)
Dream Image (installation view detail)
1963
Oil on canvas on composition board
Purchased 1964
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Two views of Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum with works in situ
Photos: Marcus Bunyan
Clifton Pugh (Australian, 1924-1990)
The Crab Catcher (installation view)
1958
Oil on composition board
Purchased 1958
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Robert Jacks (Australian, 1943-2014)
Goddess (installation view)
1959-1960
Bronze
Gift of the artist 2001
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Clifford Last (Australian, 1918-1993)
Family Group
1958
Limed Pine
Gift of the Subscribers 1958
Photo: Marcus Bunyan
Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum
14 Lyttleton Street (PO Box 248)
Castlemaine, Vic 3450 Australia
Phone: (03) 5472 2292
Email: info@castlemainegallery.com
Opening hours:
Thursday – Sunday 12 – 4pm
Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum website
Art Blart _ art and cultural memory archive 
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