A
Touch of Ireland
Art Exhibition by John Vander
Thursday 10th - Sunday 13th July 2008.
10am - 5pm, Morpeth Gallery,
5 Green Street, Morpeth NSW 2321
Join Morpeth Gallery as we celebrate life in the Emerald Island, with a
stunning exhibition of 42 paintings by world-renowned artist John Vander.
John has spent a lifetime painting historic towns, villages and homes throughout
his native-born Belgium, as well as Europe, UK, Ireland and his adopted
home of 39 years, Australia.
This exhibition is dedicated to Ireland, and for many of us our heritage
leads back to this quaint country. When John Vander paints a town he paints
it as a portrait painter would paint his subject. Every building is accurate.
Every building is sketched in the street before he starts his final work.
You will also fall in love with John's Australian scenes, featuring homesteads
and buildings in picturesque villages such as Berrima, Maitland, Sofala
& Braidwood. John's depictions of rusty windmills in wheat paddocks
and water tanks on the side of the road in rural locations are a favourite
of his.
John Vander Calendar's, greeting cards, Open and Limited Edition Prints
will also be for sale.
On this informal evening we invite you to enjoy some Fine Art, Irish Inspired
Foods, Great Wine & of course a Guinness or Kilkenny! You may wish to
dance to an Irish jig, and John Vander will share his Irish experiences.
See John Vander's paintings here
For
more information contact the team at Morpeth Gallery,
5 Green Street Morpeth NSW 2321.
Telephone (02) 49331407 Fax (02) 4934 2107
info@morpethgallery.com
World
Wildlife Art Exhibition
Wednesday Night 4th June Preview & Opening 7pm – 9pm RSVP 2/06/08
Then Thursday 5th – Monday 9th June 2008.
10am – 5pm, Morpeth Gallery, 5 Green Street, Morpeth NSW 2321
Join Morpeth Gallery as they celebrate World Environment Day, with a stunning
exhibition of paintings by world-renowned Australian wildlife artists.
Last week a visitor to the Gallery was admiring a
painting by James Hough of Kingfishers in
a riverbank setting. ‘Wow that’s really great, but why would I
pay $1,500 for it? I can take a
photo for much less than that!’ As I explained to the visitor, (as
politely as I could), that’s not
actually true.
Apart from the fact that it’s really hard to photograph kingfishers
in their natural habitat, because
they dart all over the place, a wildlife painting has perfect composition.
The bird or animal is
placed at the foreground and painted with detail that is ‘true to life’
– those birds are so good you
could reach out and touch them! The artist then places in the painting exactly
what he wants
the viewer to see – trees, a winding river with the perfect bend, mountains
in the background, a
brilliant blue sky… there’s no smog, no river debris from the
June 07 floods, no rusted out car
dumped up the road… Fine details such as ants and a lizard on the tree
branch would never
show up in a photo. You see the point I am trying to make?
And then there’s the fact that a brilliant artist has laboured for
weeks to bring this image to life.
Or that an artist such as Natalie Jane Parker or Garry Fleming has taken
the time to paint
every single hair on a wombat or a tiger – their skill really is incredible.
You don’t see that in a
photo!
Purchasing wildlife art often makes people happy. It may be your favourite
animal, that cheeky
look you love, or simply that it’s a beautiful picture to have on your
wall. Then there’s the fact
that if you purchase a Limited Edition print or an original, your painting
will increase in value
over the years – it’s an investment for the future!
The reason these artists’ paintings become good investments are because
of the promotion
of their originals being reproduced on all manner of products. The more
people see their
reproductions and begin to recognise their style of art and name the more
demand there is for
their originals. Take for example wildlife artist Garry Fleming.
Garry Fleming has 2 new additions of his latest animals
at risk puzzle
books, being published in America and Australia. He has just completed the
first of the 24
series “Garry Fleming how to draw books” with a DVD, to be Published
by FMP Publishing. The
first title is Dinosaurs, and the second is how to draw horses, which will
begin next month. DVD
filming and production for both titles starts 1st May, Garry says “FMP
have also just sold a revamped puzzle box / book combo of all the existing
puzzle books to Boarders book USA and Brimax UK. This means that all existing
artwork used in these titles will be reused again in this new format hurray!”.
Meanwhile a world Atlas sticker book containing over 150 illos/stickers,
is being released in
June, and he is just finishing the last 10 illos for this title published
by Hinkler books. Garry
says a book will follow this on the environment, pencilled in for October
release, and he as also
just signed contract for a Dinosaur boxed puzzle range. The range contains
5 new Dino illos
stickers these will be completed end April.
Brimax Publishing has just released two layer books for the younger reader.
They are titled farm
animals and jungle animals. They are bright and colourful with over 12 new
artworks. As well he
have 6 new tapestry images being released next month.
For a new challenge Garry is designing and developing a set of figurines
based on “The man
From Snowy River”, these will be distributed throughout Australia.
Garry’s 2009 calendar is
being produced by Allen Calendars and he has just approved the colour proofs.
Like Natalie Parker, Garry has been approached by Ashdene who have agreed
to use his baby
animal paintings in set of mugs scatter trays plates etc. They have also
commissioned me to
produce a number of new artworks the first two are kittens and cats. Sketches
were approved
yesterday Garry says this is a very exciting new venture.
And last, Garry says “I have been asked by Ray Hadley Sydney radio
jock and TV personality
and the Jeans for genes campaign to paint his portrait for this year’s
auction. Ray Hadley
has been the auctioneer for this prestigious night for many years now. I
have also written and
recorded a song relating to my mother’s condition that will be performed
by my brother and I
acoustically at the official jeans for genes launch at Sydney’s art
house the rocks. Can’t wait!!
It is this sought of massive exposure to a wide cross section of the community
both in Australia
and overseas that has made Garry’s work increase in value to its present
level of $4.20 per
square centimetre, and quite clearly it won’t stop there.
Gordon Hanley: The effect on an artist not keeping
their name in the public’s eye is
often dramatic. A few years ago Gordon Hanley took 4 years off to work on
his Parrot Book
but as a result he didn’t keep any new prints or other reproductions
coming onto the market.
As a result his name faded from the public’s eye. He realises now that
this was a big mistake
and so he is now busy bringing out a range of images to be printed onto
Jigsaw puzzles,
biscuit tins, coffee mugs, prints, tapestries and decoupage. A Melbourne
company
manufactures these biscuit tins with his images on the lid and they are
sold through Coles and
Kmart stores throughout Australia leading up to Christmas. There is hundreds
of thousands
sold and on the back of every tin there is a profile on Gordon Hanley.
He has produced a series of Teddy Bear paintings set as children’s
scenes and these will
appear as prints jigsaw puzzles and tapestries. His new large project is
painting each model of
Rolls Royce from 1905 through till 2008, but he has been careful to only
commit part of his time
to this project so that it allows him to paint other subjects that are being
used for reproduction.
This should allow him to return to one of the highest profile artists in
the country, whilst the Rolls
Royce paintings will be printed in an open edition books sold around the
world making him an
international celebrity artist... Time will tell.
Natalie Jane Parker sent his update: “Thank you
all for your patronage over the past 10 years. This is just a letter to
let you all know that my work may be a rare commodity for the next few years.
As most of you know, I have a young family, which you could imagine take
up a lot of my time. As of July this year my husband Paul will be back at
work full-time which will effect the amount of work I can get done. I don’t
plan on stopping completely and I do plan on getting back to my full time
painting pace when my children are a little older. For now the amount of
work I will produce will be quite minimal. I will still be working with
Ashdene, and will also have 3 books out this year. It’s been quite
frustrating not being able to get my work complete in usual time. I will
still attend the ‘Meet the Artist’ weekends and have work in the
June wildlife exhibition, but only a small amount. I do stress that I am
not retiring, and will be back painting full time in a few years, hoping
to kick off with a solo exhibition.
Ashdene who produce the coffee mug, plates, trays and dinner place mats,
are looking at using images of Natalie’s Children books to release
a line of children’s products. Ashdene have also commissioned Natalie
to paint a dingo family and emus to add to her collection. Both these paintings
will be for sale at Morpeth later in the year. Currently Natalie is half
way through the artwork for a sequel to “Willow the Wombat” children’s
book. She is also reworking Curly the Caterpillar so that he counts to 10
instead of 7. This new book will then be sold with “Frankie The Frog”,
Lulu the Ladybird and Bella the Butterfly... Bella the Butterfly will be
released this year. “Blip Meets Pip” and “Blip Gets Wheels”
will be published in Poland.
Two wildlife artists that are in the early stages of their commercial career
are James Hough and Brett Jarrett. They have only a small number of reproductions
of their originals out in the market place compared to others but these
numbers are increasing rapidly. As a result their prices of their originals
are much lower than more established artists but still show enormous potential
for growth as their names become better known in the wider community.
James Hough is also forging ahead with the promotion
of his original paintings by having them reproduced as calendars, prints
and gift cards. Last year James was lucky enough to have five of his designs
selected to adorn the lids of confectionery tins in USA and now sell throughout
America, Canada and Iraq. James has the distinctive advantage that he is
able to put a full landscape in many of his wildlife paintings and make
it all work as he grew up watching his mum paint landscape work.
Brett Jarrett is another artist who like Bill Cooper AO paints anatomically
correct. He has had two books published worldwide; both are animal and bird
Field Guides, which of course need to be accurate to identify the subjects.
In November 2007 he was commissioned by the Mawson Hut Restoration foundation
to travel to the Antarctic to paint Mawson’s Hut, its contents and
surrounding wildlife. These paintings will be shown in two exhibitions in
2009 one show in Australia and the other in London. These two art exhibitions
are expected to catapult him into the limelight as a great deal of publicity
worldwide will occur and many of the company sponsors of Mawson’s original
expedition will be invited to the shows. The enclosed brochure, “Mawson’s
Huts” promotes a new book on the restoration of these huts and will
help raise funds for that venture.
Even though James Hough’s and Brett Jarrett’s paintings have increased
in price over the first few years of their commercial career they are very
affordable compared to other high profile artists and I believe they still
have a long way to go in price rises making excellent gains in future years.
Patrick Watson is new to Morpeth Gallery he has produced
work for a number of publications, from scientific and educational to a
number of children’s books.In 1989 he was commissioned by a leading
Sydney publisher to illustrate a large format book titled “Australia’s
Endangered Wildlife”. A cartoon character “Koogee Koala”
was created by Pat and turned into a children’s book in 1996. Over
the years he has produced numerous articles and short stories both fiction
and nonfiction. He has worked on producing a book on native cats, with America’s
oldest university press – Johns Hopkins. Titled “SMALL WILD CATS
– The Animal Answer Guide” it will be cowritten by Pat and Dr
Jim Sanderson one of the world’s leading authorities on the subject.
The Financial Review newspaper reports “art is continuing to defy the
international downturn with art sales up 50% on the previous year, in January,
February and March 2008”. They go onto say that “Sotheby’s
has sold 56.4% more art than in February 2007 and Fine Art Head, Phillip
Hoffman said people were seeing art as a safe haven.”
Gallery Open - 10.00am - 5.00pm Thursday
- Sunday Phone (7 Days) (02) 4933 1407 - Fax (02) 4934 2107
email:- info@morpethgallery.com - website:- www.morpethgallery.com
You can invest in Original Paintings or Limited Edition Prints by Australia’s
best known traditional artists
and be kept up to date on their valuations.
First Floor / Blue Wing
5 Green Street Morpeth NSW 2321
T/A part of Podium Enterprises P/L
ABN 77 874 426 437
