Morpeth Gallery Coming Exhibitions


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
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ABN 77 874 426 437