It may have been postponed due to COVID but the Currarong Easter Art Show is back better than ever in 2021.
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Themed 'Beecroft and Beyond', the biennial art show has become a permanent fixture on the Currarong calendar of events, attracting both locals and visitors to the area to experience a wide range of works submitted by professional and recreational artists.
This year's exhibiting artists include award winning Currarong resident artists Dr Kurt Brereton and landscape painter Peter Zanetti, basket maker/ sculptor Lissa-Jane de Sailles and contemporary painter Robyn Gibson.
Lissa-Jane de Sailles
Basket maker and sculptor Lissa-Jane de Sailles, a resident artist at Fern Street Gallery in Gerringong, learnt her craft from the late, and very well-known Culburra basket maker Jim Wallace.
She was the recipient of the 2013 Shoalhaven Women's Development grant, which enabled her to study basket making in Ireland under master basket maker Joe Hogan, and has received several scholarships including two Veolia Mulwaree creative arts grants which have enabled her to further her artisan craft in Ireland and the United States.
Dr Kurt Brereton
Dr Kurt Brereton's mixed media artworks are inspired by the natural environment of the Shoalhaven.
A resident of Currarong since 2013, Kurt has mounted more than 30 solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas.
In 2019, he was a winner of the prestigious NOW Contemporary Art Prize - Shoalhaven Regional Gallery's Biennial Visual Arts program, which offers the South Coast's biggest visual arts prize.
Kurt won the Jervis Bay and Basin Members Prize with 'True Map of Currarong No. 14', one of a series of 'abstract experiential maps' of the area, which he says people find 'uncannily accurate'.
Kurt's latest body of work has been inspired by the terrible bushfires of recent times and a piece from his bushfire regrowth series will be shown.
Kurt has taught art and communications at Universities, Tafe Colleges, High Schools and regional galleries across New South Wales. He also offers ArtStayz art masterclass workshops at his studio in Currarong.
Robyn Gibson
For Robyn Gibson, painting is all about breathing light and colour into the canvas. Robyn has been painting for the past 25 years and has exhibited in galleries in Canberra and in Berry as well as at various art shows including the Currarong and Shoalhaven Art Shows.
Well-known in the local area, she created a mural at Dolphin Reserve in Currarong, which depicts local birds in flight.
"I've exhibited at the Currarong Art Show since it started seven years ago. It's a great community event, and very social as it brings all the local residents together," she said.
"The show also attracts holiday makers and day trippers to Currarong, such is the calibre of the artworks on exhibition."
Peter Zanetti
Peter Zanetti moved to Currarong in 2016. He chose the South Coast to be near family and found an immediate connection with the natural environment around Currarong, including its geology and plant species.
As a professional artist Peter works with gouaches, oils, pastels and is a printmaker.
"I'd describe my work as representational - it's based on observation and making drawings in the landscape and then what evolves out of that - from the imagination."
He says the Australian landscape offers endless inspiration for his work.
"It is a landscape that has evolved in response to its unique environment. There is a great complexity of plants in terms of texture and colour," he said.
"I think a lot of us are still discovering it, and as an artist this has been part of my own journey. When you learn the name of the plant, your sense of recognition is much deeper and you start to recognise the plants that are inter-related.
"I love trees, the way they endure through time and their interrelationships - it's like looking at a slow dance as the branches chase the light. Everything about humanity is very fleeting compared to the landscape."
Peter has done a lot of work out at the Currarong cliffs, at Red Point and Coonemia Creek where he says there are still some lovely old trees with beautiful reaching forms.
The Currarong Easter Art Show will be held at the Currarong Community Hall on Walton Way, Currarong. The show opens at 10am on Good Friday April 2 and runs through until 2pm Easter Monday, April 5. Entry is free and all artworks will be available for purchase.
