Life this year has been experienced in a different way
Greetings pardners
In Judgement: life this year has been experienced in a different way and our Gallery One Students’ and Participants’ Art Exhibition has proved to be no exception. Unsurprisingly, entries were down for both art and craft sections but enthusiasm, achievement and excellence were in evidence to compensate well for the reduced numbers. Le Supremo Rod, Master of the Web (while behind the scenes Sanya was the real hero pulling the strings), has produced an on-line masterpiece and you can view each entry online, in your own time and in your own space. The exhibition is also hanging in the Gallery for a real-time experience.
This year, given the fraught economic times retail and hospitality have experienced, there was no enthusiasm from the Committee to beg, borrow or steal prizes from our usual and very generous Gallery One supporters so, while the exhibition has been judged, there are no physical goodies for winners other than our sincere appreciation to participants for the skill and imagination each artist has put forward.
Dianna Bradshaw and Wende Dahl reduced the categories for this year’s exhibition and judged the event.
Overall Winner: In the Pond – Robyn Barrat (oil)
Judges’ comments: In the Pond showed excellent tonal values, drawing skills and artistry using varying painting techniques to create a very pleasing mood and balance. It is a whimsical piece where the frog is caught in a moment – about to leap forth or perhaps, to recede to safety? Whatever the frog is about to do, he looks very happy he is about to do it. The positive mood of the work clinched the award for both judges.
Best Work in oil or acrylic: – After DelaCroix – Vicki Cheshire
Best Work in watercolour: Hollyhocks – Ruth Flaherty
Best Work in pastel, graphite or charcoal: equal award
- Miss Isla – Diana Bradshaw
- Orangutan – Ruth Flaherty *
Best work in Felt art: Port Noarlunga Jetty – Jennifer Gunson **
Best Work in Craft: Indigo dyed kimono – Dianne Wood
* this category was judged by Wende Dahl as Diana was an entrant
** felt objects, including dresses and shawls, were judged as craft.
In the beginning in the 1970’s
…..there was Pamela Oborn who had a particular skill in architectural drawing and an interest in historic buildings and who also once went on a holiday to Sydney.
The Rocks by Sydney Harbour remains a drawcard for tourists and in the 1970’s, the Argyle Art Centre at the Rocks held a charm and inspiration for a ‘slightly’ younger Pamela. Visiting and observing the resident artists at the Argyle Centre working in their individual craft and art studios Pamela felt that intellectual and emotional ping that happens when an idea and a plan that you know can work come together.
Why not develop a similar concept in Adelaide?
Pamela was aware the group of early settlement cottages in the Mitcham Village precinct were under some threat from future development and she saw a way to possibly marry her interests in preserving historic buildings, local community and in art and crafts: Pamela Oborn developed a plan and laid the foundations to create Mitcham Village Art and Crafts Assn. Inc. and which we now know as Gallery One. Today, Gallery One’s incorporated name remains as Mitcham Village Art & Crafts Assoc. Inc.
This week it was Wende Dahl’s very real pleasure to interview Pamela and to listen to her talk about how it all began, to hear her first-hand record about the highs and lows of the Gallery’s life and in so doing, to establish a voice history for those who come after to access, as a direct resource, information describing an important and integral part of the character of Mitcham Village in The City of Mitcham.
In 2005 Pamela Oborn was awarded an OAM for her service to the community through the recording and preservation of the history and heritage of Mitcham Village. Thank you Pamela. Gallery One will ensure your legacy in arts and crafts in Mitcham lives on.
Video of the Week
Wende Dahl interviews Gallery One (MVAC) founder Pamela Oborn OAM
The Book Worm
James Lee Burke – Wayfaring Stranger
James Lee Burke – Wayfaring Stranger, one of 41 works. James Lee Burke, now in his mid 80’s, has been prolific as a writer and almost all of his output attains the highest of echelons. The man can write and has a turn of phrase that is inimitable.
I have been conscious over the last few weeks that the Christmas break is nigh and so have reviewed the works of authors who write in a series to enable you to relax and withdraw from the Xmas hysteria. I have also tried to review books which are not gender specific – all adults can hopefully be equally absorbed.
Wayfaring Stranger is one of Lee Burke’s mid-career works (2014). Weldon Avery Holland returns from WWII, marries the ex-communist, Jewish Rosita Lowenstein whom he has rescued from a German concentration camp and sets up in business with Hershel Pine, whom he has saved from a fox-hole in Battle of the Bulge. Now, there’s a plot!
Bonnie and Clyde get a mention too but don’t be misled by a smoke-drift of sensationalism: Burke’s characters always carry with them a sense of the ethical burden of humankind. His characters are multi-dimensional, flawed, torn, aware and intelligent, looking for the right way but inevitably rendered compromised by their human frailties. You are just going to love Linda Gail Pine!
As we approach the yule tide and year’s end I am early with a resolution not to dwell upon all that has been a negative part of this last 12 months. While I know there have been positives, the very fact of enumerating those positives gives credence to the opposite and the depth of the blight in which the world has found itself in 2020 so, I am just not thinking about any of it.
Forward all! I say and if it’s ‘once more unto the breach dear friends’ well, so be it but I know we will do our best again at Gallery One and, as always, we will do it with a smile and cheer in our hearts.
stay safe, be happy.
Photo Credits
Photo by Nicolas Thomas on Unsplash Merry Christmas
Photo by Vladislav Murashko from Pexels 2021
Photo by Taryn Elliott from Pexels Ginger people
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch from Pexels 2020 Photo
A lovely oral history of the foundation of Mitcham Arts & Crafts Assocn from it’s inception