An idea, a connection, a collaboration.
After running Wintergarden Gallery in Geelong for 16 years, and teaching at Geelong Art Society, award winning Geelong artist Jill Shalless makes her first appearance at The Hive. Joining her, our talented ceramicist neighbour, Dani Salvo who runs BeMyKeeper studio and gallery, is a member of Geelong Sculptors Association, and has 30 years’ experience in the field of ceramics. Jill proposed the concept of exhibiting together with Dani’s pieces that stem from ‘a sense of place’ providing the inspiration for a series of paintings that build on that essence.
Jill Shalless
Penumbra; almost shadow, a space of partial illumination.
As a student of tonal painting, relative values or the light and shade of any given subject have long been observed. But it is the transition between the values which presents the ultimate challenge and where the magic happens.
The ceramic pieces, coupled with the landscape, are my inspiration. Some of the paintings have a deceptive visual where both object and landscape merge. Others echo the sentiment of a ceramic piece, using the surface textures and patterns as a visual cue. Painting to convey something beyond the literal, to interpret nature’s majesty and to serve justice to Dani’s ceramics has pushed me into new territory. Enjoying the abstract nature of some paintings as much as the sheer pleasure of time out on the coast, taking in its beauty and power.
Our collaboration has given me the opportunity to see the coastline in a new light. Walking with Dani is to understand this backdrop where the sky, sea and land meet, also to feel it as much as to observe it. The essence of Dani’s creative process begins where all the senses are ignited by being in ‘place’. This sensibility transformed with clay into robust, tactile objects, raw, rugged and glistening have become the basis for this oeuvre.
The title allows for reflection on the painting process as much as the results. Immersing myself in subject and object to connect each with the other, absorbed by the nuances, the drama and combining these in order to illuminate and excite.
Dani Salvo
It is the light that fascinates me, there is a certain energy as daylight changes in just seconds and dances across the clouds, sea and landscapes that I admire. What about that silvery blue blur where the sky meets the ocean? These natural marvels ignite me, encourage me to breathe deeply and bring about a strong need to represent this in my work. I understand what is good and great about the land I live in, and I honour this in my work and through the integrity of clay and surface.
How divine it feels to capture this light, its contrasting moods, and transfer it onto ceramic forms capturing the shape of a sailing vessel or the swirl of a swell and wild, wild wind. The colours of the adjoining landscape, the iron browns, ochres, yellows and oranges against the black contrast of weathered and sea-worn rocks. How can I lose myself so intently in cloud formations? I adore where the light and the darkness meet, where they connect and that light in between.
I can celebrate the power of these natural surroundings and how they invigorate and excite me by painting with slip, engobe and glaze. It is important to note that all the materials used in my work are dug from this earth, from the clay to the surface treatments. They are carefully combined and tested, hours and hours of work to use them as a painter might work on canvas. It is insistent and inherent, this need to capture the contrasting tones of our sea, land and sky.
Please enjoy supporting the artists at the Opening Saturday 3rd 2-4pm, or throughout the month of August.
