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Kathy Shell, teaching an art class.
The portrait of Nick Cave  was painted in Australia, by Howard Arkley, using synthetic polymer paint on canvas. It is 175.0 x 135.0 cm and was a commissioned work with funds provided by L Gordon Darling AC CMG 1999 (1999.16)  The painting is copyright © of The Estate of Howard Arkley. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art. Lick here, to view :- http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/arkley/education/essays08_ep.html

This is a project  a young girl i care about, is doing as a school project and that is how my attention was drawn to this work and I decided to do some research on it, myself.

"Howard's work was accessible and enjoyable and has been described variously as quirky, moody, passionate and rigorous. Both the artist and the man struck a special chord in the hearts of so many Australians in a way that few artists - maybe Nolan, Boyd and Whiteley - did."

Ron Radford, Chair of the Council’s Visual Arts/Craft Fund and Venice exhibition Commissioner, 1999. (Currently Director of The National Gallery of Australia)

Howard Arkley and Nick Cave moved in similar circles in Melbourne in the late 1970s.

Howard Arkley

Born Melbourne, Australia 1951

Died  Melbourne, Australia 1999

Nationality Australian

Field, Airbrush, canvas, paper and bold colours.

Training, Prahran College of Advanced Education

Influenced by Patrick Caulfield, Sidney Nolan

Read more:-

http://www.portrait.gov.au/exhibit/making_portraits/cave.htm  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Arkley
 
 
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For the 1.4 million people in Australia involved in visual arts, it has long been difficult to find details of relevant competitions and exhibitions. This is now no longer the case.

Artrillium House, an Australian art publishing house, located on the Gold Coast, has just released a directory which includes details of 1300 competitions or exhibitions for visual artists in Australia and New Zealand.

Artrillium House Co-Director, Martina Pook says:

‘At some point in an artist's career, whether they be professional or amateur they will wish to exhibit. The Directory is a definitive guide which details the show title, contact details, dates, venue, commission on sale and prize money etc. of thousands of opportunities.

It is a convenient, invaluable resource for visual artists in a wide range of fields  - from Fine Artist, Photographers, Sculptors, Calligraphers, Glass Artists to Printmakers, Woodworkers and Weavers.' she says.

Martina, herself once a commercial illustrator and artist, has been deeply involved in the arts industry for more than 20 years and in addition to working as a commercial illustrator was formerly Co- Director of the popular Illustration House located at Southbank.  She was recently nominated as Regional Arts Development Fund Committee Member of the Gold Coast City Council.

‘I have mentored many emerging artists and they have all experienced the frustration of not knowing where to look for opportunities to exhibit. There is information available on the Internet, but scattered and takes time to plug through" she says.

Martina published the first Directory in 2001. This edition is published annually with an up-coming online database in the coming months, which is available to members and updated throughout the year.  Since Cathy Osborne became Co-Director in 2009,  additional publications are also planned.

The 2010 Directory - Art Competitions & Exhibitions of Australia & NZ for Visual Artists is priced at $39.95 incl. postage and available from the Artrillium House website (http://www.artrilliumhouse.com/) or can be purchased by sending a money order to: Artrillium House, PO Box 3079, Burleigh Town, Q 4220.

For media enquiries or interviews:  Martina Pook Tel 0414 875 678 or 5556 0568

Photo Opportunities Available.

Press release published by Seeking Media. http://www.seekingmedia.com.au/

 
 
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Medium:pastel, Blue and gold: portrait of Dorothy Sutherland (1908) by Jane Sutherland.
 One of the artists whose work I most admire, is Jane Sutherland.

Jane Sutherland 1853-1928 was an artist and art teacher.

At age seventeen, her father George Sutherland, who was a drawing instructor and artist exhibiting with the Victorian Academy of Arts, encouraged her to enrol in the National Gallery Schools. She studied  under Thomas Clark, 1871-1875, Oswald Rose Campbell, 1877-1881. Eugene von Guerard in 1877, and  George Frederick Folingsby, 1882-1885.

She is an artist of the same era as Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin and painted with them at the Box Hill artist Camp. See:- her work 'Obstruction, Box Hill' in 1887.

She exhibited in 1878 with the Victorian Academy of Arts and  the Australian Artists' Association. She later exhibited with the Victorian Artists' Society.. She also exhibited works in the federal exhibitions in 1899, 1903 and 1906 at the South Australian Society of Arts, and along with Clara Southern, and May Vale, exhibited in the First Exhibition of Australian Women's Work held in the Exhibition Buildings, Melbourne, 1907.

Jane Sutherland, Clara Southern, May Vale and Jane Price also exhibited together in a 'Private Exhibition of Pictures' held in November 1905 in Frederick McCubbin's home, in Shipley Street, South Yarra.   Fredrick McCubbin was ‘gentleman’ artist of whom I have a great deal of respect.  Many of the male artists. One in particular, went out of their way to strive to prevent private art galleies hanging the work of the great woman artist’s of the day and this makes Fredrick McCubbin’s efforts to strive to put right, the professional disadvantage these women artists struggled under, even more noticeable as he himself was ridiculed by his male counterparts for both this and his own devotion to his family.

Jane Sutherland and her close friend, Clara Southern, were pioneers of the plein-air movement, and  they sought to advance the professional standing of women artists. Jane Southerland was considered the leading woman artist of the Heidelberg School.

Jane Sutherland Biography

Jane Sutherland - Obstruction, 1887
Jane Sutherland - Girl in a Paddock, c. 1890
Jane Sutherland - The Mushroom Gatherers, c. 1895
Jane Sutherland - Daydream, c. 1895
Emanuel Phillips Fox - A Love Story, c. 1903
Jane Sutherland - Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl, c. 1905

Heidelberg School Background

Around 1904, Jane Sutherland suffered a mild stroke, after this, she stopped painting large on location landscapes and adapted to painting small  oils and pastels, of her garden local surroundings and portraits.

It was during this time she painted the beautiful 'Portrait of Margaret Sutherland as a Young Girl', c.1905. She continued painting, exhibiting and teaching art, with the assistance of a family member, up 1911.