Bernadette Curtin: Reef Forming
At the Lone Goat Gallery in Byron Bay ten artists have come together to express their love of all things oceanic, and the inspirational power and beauty of the sea through their art.
When the Lone Goat Gallery, right next to the Byron Library, opened last year – named after the goat that still roams the headland up by the lighthouse – the artistic community in the region breathed a sigh of relief that at last they had somewhere in the Byron Shire to exhibit in a purpose-built space.
There doesn’t seem to be a better way to show off local artists’ work than with an ocean-based exhibition, given that the gallery is only a few hundred metres from the beach, and in Ocean Ten, seven local artists have been joined by three artists from Sydney, New Zealand and the UK respectively to present their connection and responses to the ocean, based upon their particular geographical location.
Denise Morden with Ocean View series
Through the artworks of the participating artists, Ocean Ten aims to lead the viewer through a variety of approaches and mediums, expressing each artist’s focus and inspiration from the sea, and some of the Shire’s best-known artists have rallied to the ocean’s call. The artists include:
Denise Morden’s sublime vistas of sea and sky
Alan Morden’s luscious minimalist abstractions
Jeanette Macdonald’s sculptural silk pieces reflecting pattern and rhythm
Merrilee Pettinato’s depiction of the wesak full moon over the Byron Lighthouse,
Simone Ellis’s printed silk scarves inspired by lighthouses and navigation lights
Michele Aboud photographs waves at night to capture the continuous momentum of the ocean
Rosemary Dunstan unravels the relationship between human life and the ocean through our subconscious feelings
Rowena Parkes loves the ocean and the shoreline and her chosen locations are Broken Head, Toberua Island, Fiji, and Fraser Island, Queensland
Tricia Nicholson, a marine biologist, brings her knowledge, experience and love of the sea to the creation of ceramic penguins and dolphins
Bernadette Curtin’s paintings are playful reconstructions of reef formations and their inhabitants.
Ocean Ten. Left to right: The Meeting, Sounds of the Ocean and Ocean View Series.
In this area, where there is already such high ecological and environmental awareness, the intention of this group is to collectively bring awareness to the issues of ocean ecology, the delicate nature of marine ecosystems and the sea creatures which inhabit them. The rhetorical question underlying the exhibition as a whole is how we can better look after the marine world, and Ocean Ten take their audience along the shoreline and to the ocean’s depths, to shine light on the importance of heightening our awareness about appreciating and caring for our oceans.
The exhitbition is on at Lone Goat Gallery, corner of Middleton and Lawson Street, Byron Bay. The Gallery is open seven days a week from 10am–4pm.
