FONAS MEMBER EXHIBITIONS MAY/JUNE
Sydney Children's Hospital ArtSpace &
XavierArtSpace at St Vincents Hospital
Each year the Arts curators at St Vincents and Sydney Children's Hospitals work alongside FONAS to present a rotating program of exhibitions. Artists are provided a unique platform for exposure, and play an active role in creating an environment that is culturally stimulating and diverse for patients, staff and visitors. Exhibitions are awarded to successful candidates from within our membership.
XAVIER ARTSPACE RECENT PAINTINGS
LEVEL 4: MARIANNE CARA
LEVEL 3: MICHELLE DONALD
From: 4th May - 4th June 2009
At: St Vincents Hospital, Victoria Street Darlinghurst NSW 2010
SCH ARTSPACE 1 KATHRYN COWEN “IMAGINAIRE”
SCH ARTSPACE 0 CAROL NEVILLE “TEDDY BEAR DREAMING”
From: 31st March - 15th May 2009
At: Sydney Children’s Hospital, High Street Randwick NSW 2031
Curator: Roxanne Fea, Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation
MARIANNE CARA (@ST VINCENT'S)
Marianne graduated from the National Art School in 2004 and has since exhibited widely in group shows across Sydney and in Italy. This recent body of work is the result of her 2008 travels to Umbria in central Italy, where she was struck by the beautiful mosaic landscapes.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Marianne’s Italian background influences her painting. Whilst she was born in Australia, she has traveled back to her parents’ homeland and nurtured her heritage. The second generation Italian artist paints portraits in the landscape that delicately blend Calabrian village scenes with backyard Australiana. Her paintings of family and family life evoke powerful sensations of the different experiences and places that shape her mature artistic vision. She subtlely draws together aspects of her Italian and Australian heritage, the results being engaging and enigmatic.
MICHELLE DONALD (@ST VINCENT'S)
Michelle studied painting at National Art School, graduating in 2005, and was a finalist in the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2008. Her dedicated studio practice results in an impressive and consistent output of constantly evolving work.
ARTIST STATEMENT
This series of paintings explores the beauty to be found in the familiarity of our everyday surroundings; the play of shadows cast by the midday sun, slanting afternoon light, or an unexpected harmony of colours. A window features in each painting, allowing a glimpse of the landscape from our urban dwellings, while rich and vibrant colours give warmth and joy to the intimate interiors.
From detailed studies of architectural elements to freely painted landscapes and foliage, these paintings display a love of simple harmonies that delight the eye and transform the mundane into the beautiful.
KATHRYN COWEN (@SCH)
Kathryn graduated from the National Art School in 2007, and has gone on to further experiment with the application of paint and other materials in her work, with vibrant and original results. In the past two years she has shown in galleries across Sydney and Melbourne, as well as being a finalist in the National Contemporary Arts Competition.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Process based and materially driven, my practice aims to investigate the fluid connections we make with the world around us from a variety of perspectives. Deliberately open and ambiguous, landscape and figurative elements are combined with more abstract passages to explore the boundaries between order and disorder, the real and the imagined, rationality and intuition.
The works for this exhibition at Sydney Children’s Hospital are intended to be light hearted and playful. The abstract organic forms created are ‘specimens’ or ‘samples’ and, like a Rorschach inkblot, they are open to the interpretation of the viewer and the individual associations they may make with the natural world.
CAROL NEVILLE (@SCH)
After working as a teacher for a number years, Carol has made her art practice the focus of her life since completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in 2007. Her sensitivity and connection with children is clear in the playful simplicity of this body of work. Since graduating she has exhibited at the Xavier Art Space, Art Moment and Meld Galleries in Sydney.
ARTIST STATEMENT
“Teddy Bear Dreaming” is a series of drawings and paintings on canvas and paper. The works are all portraits of one of my children’s favourite teddy bears seated in a variety of poses on his chair gazing out the window. Teddy sits longingly dreaming about all the fun he could have and games he could play out amongst the hills, fields and trees. He eagerly anticipates getting well again and playing outside. The theme is universal and captures the feelings we all have at times when we cannot ‘go outside and play’.
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Friends of the National Art School Inc. was founded in 1994 to promote the continuation of the unique model of art education taught at the National Art School.
Friends provides invaluable support to the students, staff and graduates of the National Art School, while also involving the broader community in the educational, historical and cultural pursuits of this important sector of the visual arts.
Friends assists in promoting the arts and in organising and funding scholarships and facilities for students, graduates and staff of the National Art School.
Friends of the National Art School Inc. is an independent not-for-profit registered charity entered on the Register of Cultural Organisations and all donations have a tax deductible status.
The National Art School is Australia’s oldest and most well respected art school. NAS is located in the old Darlinghurst Gaol, which is itself highly significant in the history and culture of Australia. NAS prides itself on having educated over the last century some of the most well-known and distinguished artists in the country. Please see our NAS Graduates page and National Art School page.
Friends of the National Art School invite alumni, artists, members of the community, supporters and friends to join our association which supports and promotes the arts and an independent National Art School and its students, staff and graduates. Members enjoy the diverse privilege of supporting, benefiting and contributing to the development of the visual arts.
As a Friends Member, you are invited to all the Friends exhibitions and events throughout the year, as well as receiving other benefits, such as the quarterly newsletter, discounts at various art suppliers, picture framing companies and NAS Public Programs, invitation to enter exhibitions, opportunity to be awarded prizes and awards, invited to utilise the NAS Library and invitation to attend the NAS Art Forum Lectures held every Wednesday during term times presenting local, interstate and international artists and art professionals.
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Should you need more information, or request a membership brochure please contact the Friends of the National Art School on 9339 8635 or download a membership form from our Join FONAS page, under About FONAS. |
