There are still a few days left to take a walk around The Foundry Arts Space and transport yourself, albeit briefly, to some of the tranquil and serene scenes that now fill the gallery.
The Australian Plein Air Artist group held a very special three-day tutorial experience with renowned Australian artist Kasey Sealy during the plein air muster.
Kasey shared his knowledge and techniques to enthusiastic participants to help them continue their artistic journey.
Born in Forbes in 1961 and immersed in a family of noted artists, creative activities were not just a birthright for the young Kasey, but a way of life.
He began painting at the age of 17 in 1978 and professionally since 1980.
Kasey’s gift of capturing light, mood and sense of place flows onto his canvas, creating and communicating a unique moment in time that holds the viewers’ gaze and imagination.
The viewer feels transported to the very place where the union between paint, creativity and emotion came together on the artist’s palette and into life on the canvas.
The smell and sounds of a Tuscan village nestled in the field of sunflowers, the sun on your face, the distant rolling hills, beckoning a magical mystical experience between reality and a step inside the soul of an artist.
A gift for us all.
With countless Australian solo exhibitions, six solo exhibitions in London, represented at a major London art fair and receiving a record price for a canvas in 2002, Kasey has received numerous awards, including the 2012 Mortimer Landscape prize and three-time winner of the Camberwell Art Prize.
‘‘My work is a direct influence of the impressionist style of painting with a direct hand-eye co-ordination in front of the subject, trying to catch the subtleties of mood, light and the atmosphere, giving the viewer a unique visual experience every time,’’ Kasey said.
Arty-Fact
The emergence of Impressionism.
Impressionism is a style of painting that emerged in the mid 1800s in France.
A group of artists, including Monet, Renoir and Degas rejected the rigid rules of fine art and used the freedom of technique and a personal approach to the subject matter.
Impressionists artists found they could capture momentary and transient effects of sunlight by working quickly in front of their subjects in the open air (plein air), opposing the style of realism (to copy nature).
Impressionists observe nature and use the transitory light and feeling to produce paintings of natural landscapes, modern life and emphasising colour.
The first exhibition of this style of painting was met with disapproval by the French academy and labelled as ‘‘impressions of art’’.
Impressionist paintings are among the most reproduced and sought-after popular works of modern art today.
Go creatively, Dee Makeham