News
Bannockburn Art Show 2009
As in previous years there was great interest over the three days with both locals and people from the Geelong and surrounding areas enjoying the creativity offered by exhibiting artists. Many also took the opportunity to purchase original art works for home and office.
We were privilaged to have Terrance Thompson as guest judge. As always he found it very difficult to pick out winners from the field of excellence and made the point that everybody has individual preferences when it comes to art, so his judging would to a degree reflect that fact.
The Prize winners this year in the various catagories were:
Best in Show
Flinders St by Richard Jones from Ocean Grove.
Best Oil/Acrylic
First Prize: Geelong Marina by Anne Bennet, Geelong.
Second Prize: Loch Carron, Scotland by Leslie Bain, Lovely Banks.
Best Watercolour
First Prize: Wistful by Julie Whitaker, Bannockburn.
Second Prize: Bush Leaves by Jane Reyne, Navigators.
Best Pastel
First Prize: Buzz in Blooms by Karen Ewart, Herne Hill.
Second Prize: Horse by Chris Kempers, Steiglitz.
Best Other Medium
First Prize: Flight of Monarchs by Joy Timms, Bannockburn.
Second Prize: Love Song by Carol Hirst, Belmont.
Young Artist Encouragement Award
Black or White by Lewis Price, Bannockburn.
Following are a few thoughts from local artists and members of the Bannockburn Art Group.
Dennis Fawkes.
Dennis has always had an interest in painting but it was not until he retired from Pilkingtons Glass in Geelong in 1994 that he had enough time to spend enjoying his passion. Raising three children and working to pay the bills was a full time job during his younger years but as the family grew up and they developed their own artistic interests in photography, life started to slow down enough for him to seriously consider pursuing his passion for painting.
On retirement Dennis took lessons and was instrumental in starting an art group in Bannockburn, encouraging like minded locals to join him in fulfilling their artistic desires together as a group.
For the past twelve months Dennis has been painting in oils but prior to that he used acrylics. He finds it much easier to create a nice picture in oils and has been able to develop his own individual style as he finds that oils blend more smoothly and naturally.
Dennis has been showing his work, comprising mostly of landscapes, since the Bannockburn Art Show began 9 years ago and has demonstrated his style at each show for visitors to enjoy. Being a key part of the art group in Bannockburn is a very enjoyable way to spend retirement. Not only is there a personal sense of accomplishment as each work is produced but he finds the company of others artists very pleasant and stimulating
The painting pictured that he created during the art show is an imaginary scene that could be found anywhere along the Moorabool Valley.Joy Timms.
The Timms family moved to Bannockburn over 30 years ago and so are almost locals now. Joy paints in all mediums but prefers to demonstrate in pastel. Her winning entry in the Art Show this year was an ink medium titled Flight of Monarchs.
She thinks the local art show is wonderful because of its lovely, lovely opening night with food, wine, excellent company and interaction with other artists and the good country feel that the Bannockburn show enjoys.
Joy has been actively involved with art all her life but started producing art works commercially after the children left home giving her more spare time and enabling her to use one of their bedrooms as a studio.
Joy regularly demonstrates her technique at the art show using pastel. She notes that when you are demonstrating, everyone is positive. While you are working others watch and get a really positive feeling. The ones who can’t paint love watching someone who can paint. It also enthuses others who can paint or would like to paint or who loved painting at school but have not continued doing so for all sorts of reasons.
Joy enjoys demonstrating – whatever you do it just evolves. You concentrate without realizing that you are concentrating so it gets you through a lot of problematic times.
– a positive experience. The art show is an outlet for your creativity and affords the opportunity to cover costs by selling some artworks during the weekend. It is a thrill to have somebody like your work and want to buy it.
Joy has been part of the Bannockburn art group since its inception. She enjoys participating and loves the interaction with other artists. She would love to see some young people attracted to the group so that they are encouraged to pursue their art and so that they in turn can encourage the others in the group.Roz Bosnar
Roz likes to work in pastel and oil.
“I get thoroughly absorbed in what I am doing once I get started and get quite cross if I have to stop if I’m halfway through something.
My gallery is the garage which I share with my husbands tools. He gets cranky when he has to wade through all my paper and materials pinned up to the ceiling and propped up against the refrigerator and his workbenches.
I have been part of the art group since 2000 – it’s a wonderful relaxing hobby. I really enjoy being part of the group – we work well together. The social part of it is really good. It’s good therapy for people to do something like this – it doesn’t really matter how good you are – its more a spiritual thing.”
Roz prefers scenery – not portraits. She likes things with water in them – sea scenes, rivers, creeks, water holes. She is no good at animals and doesn’t enjoy doing portraits.
Roz commented that it was a good show again this year except for the cold weather. She enjoys seeing all the people come and appreciate all the artwork and everything that is displayed.
She is hopeful that next year, with our 10th year coming up, we can put on something different and unique.
Lyn Dickson
Lyn works in other mediums. She enjoys basketmaking, books, textiles, jounaling and paper collage.
She likes to grow and gather her own materials for the basketry. A lot of grasses are out of the main street - obtained them from the gardener after they were cut back.
She also loves to print, dye and colour her own paper and fabrics when she is doing textile work. She enjoys working around environmental themes and utilizing the environment for her inspiration.
Lyn sells her creations at festivals, particularly at the Birragurra Festival. Some of the items she creates can be used for practical purposes while others are purely decorative.
Last year Lyn won first prize in her category at the Bannockburn Art Show for a textile book. She started out making baskets and went on to making books out of grass panels, joining them together concertina style. This soon developed into a real interest in book making and experimentation into doing things with different creative papers, fabrics and textiles to produce her books. Her books have become quite popular, making it difficult to keep up with the demand.
Sam Gilmore
One time truck driver, Sam has been interested in art since his school days.
After retiring he found he had the time to pursue his love of art and was one of the original members of the Bannockburn Art Group.
Sam likes to work in oil and concentrates on landscapes.
Jeremy Hirst
Jeremy is one of our younger artists. He is currently studying mathematical physics at Melbourne University. He has taken his art seriously for the past five years but despite his love of art he has no intention of becoming a professional artist as that would take th enjoyment out of it for him. He enjoys his art as a hobby but would not enjoy having to change his focus from the enjoyment of exploring where your passion is to producing what others might want.
His grandfather, Sam Gilmore encouraged him to use oils and acrylics at first but currently Jeremy is enjoying the chance to explore with charcoal and this has been his major artistic outlet during the past twelve months.
This is Jeremy's fifth art show at Bannockburn and for his demonstration he has chosen to create a picture of a horse's eye. He loves doing portraits - people and animals - but at the same time he doesn't like to be classified as an animal painter. He likes to try and add something a bit different so he likes things that are perhaps a little bit unusual - unusual angles as this is and also to try and get some character into the piece.
Rather than drawing a picture of a horse he likes to do a portrait of a horse where you get some feelong and some idea of the nature of the horse.
"This horse is mysterious - I'm hoping to create the effect that whe you look beyond the eye you will not be able to clarify much - mysterious!"
