'Split Images: 2 perspectives in 2 mediums' is a joint exhibition of florascapes by digital artist Julia Thorne and landscapes by painter Gaylene Earl.
Julia's florascapes are a series of collages, composed of flowers and native New Zealand plants; roses, lilies, pohutakawa, flax, the cabbage tree, the fern. Her unusual compositions play on the beauty of the subjects' natural form and colour.
Julia works in limited edition prints which she creates using traditional emulsion-based film and sophisticated digital technology. A technique she calls: "painting with light". A fitting compliment to Julia's work, in subject, colour, form and other ways, are the landscape paintings of Gaylene.
Gaylene's paintings demonstrate a unique connection to the land, in response she says to living and painting in the countryside at Muriwai. It is here she says that "my love and concern for the forested New Zealand landscape seeks expression in the Landscape Subdivision Series," which is to feature in this exhibition.
Land subdivision and the differing perceptions of appropriate land use, are ideas that have been strongly debated in the community recently. Gaylene creates her landscapes by symbolically cutting up the land and re-piecing it together.
Gaylene describes her 'Subdivision Series': referencing early settler and the current ubiquitous subdivision and land use/abuse of farm and lifestyle. I have used a montage grid format to underscore the continuing dissection of the land. In these intense works I attempt to offer the viewer a variety of ways into the landscape to discover beauty or desolation, a grand or an intimate view.
Art critic T. J McNamarra wrote that Gaylene's paintings are landscapes done with a sensitive touch and considerable knowledge of the land despite being symbolically chopped about. (excerpt from the Herald, 29th November, 2007)
Of paramount concern to Gaylene is the creation of a satisfying mood through colour, composition and mark making. Created with oil on canvas, using brush finger and rag, Gaylene's paintings require a close and intimate viewing to reveal the subtle detail.
Julia's photography also delves deep into her subject: As a photographer for more than 20 years, I have had the privilege of seeing beyond the obvious and superficialities in life. Now through my flora fine-art work I aim to reflect some of nature's intricacies, fragility, harshness and strengths also discovered in human life. The entwined nuances also offer a chance to see, understand and accept aspects of life and humans for what they are.
Julia recently released a book Bud, Flower, Leaf, Life featuring a selection of her photographic images, and a series of quotes: Only that day dawns to which we are awake?. (Henry David Thoreau) The book will be available from the Gallery shop.