Process

 Sculptural wall art (sold)

Ply backing board

Paper clay, acrylic paint, gold leaf, resin. Step by step.

I Miss Earth Worms. Do You? Exhibition Brisbane Institute of Art BIRD 2024

Following on from our last exhibition at the Toogoolawah Regional Art Gallery, The Condensary, where the subject was Birds, I have researched and am developing the theme to incorporate my concern for the environment.

                  

Process/Inspiration - Photographs of my children, drawings, collage, oil on canvas. 60cm x 60cm oil

                                                         

 

I MISS EARTH WORMS. DO YOU?                                            60cm x 60cm Oil on canvas

Main story - understory

Bees, fleas, worms, germs,

humans are but one part of the ecosystem.

We have become the impatient species. Too busy to let nature replenish itself and too puffed up with our own sense of importance to acknowledge our utter dependence on its generosity.

- David Suzuki

Travelling around the world and Australia, we have seen various monocultures. Large expanses of a single crop. And while these are hugely efficient for crop production and harvesting, they have devastating environmental impacts.

In this painting the child/birds are eating processed food stored in small plastic containers. The mat is plastic. There is no diversity in the crop in the background. A monoculture. A system recognized to destroy biodiversity of creatures in the soil, including worms.

BIRD Exhibition Nov 2024

Brisbane Institute of Art 

November 9th - 19th  Exhibition  BIRD

Sharon Lee    Linda Black    Lyn Derrick

Our group have been exhibiting together for over twenty five years.

Following on from our exhibition in The Esk Regional Art Gallery, 2019-2020, our group has decided to continue with the theme 'BIRD' 

We booked gallery NONA for 2022, but the flood and renovations meant the exhibition was postponed. We re-booked for 2024. 

In a way this delay was a blessing. It gave us plenty of time to develop a better series of works. 

For me the theme of BIRD is tangled-up with the threats to the ecosystem. I want the viewer to ask of themselves and our society : when will we accept that there is a symbiotic relationship between nature, humans and the environs, and that we are all the same when threatened by catastrophic conditions?

   

I have never been interested in simply regurgitating images from books, or copying pictures without there being an idea behind the process. I tend to want there to be a concept. So to start, I look for inspiration. 

1/ Which birds? Just the threatened or any, including the common? 

    Australian or worldwide?

2/ Start the process with drawing birds and children separately.

When I came across this jigsaw, that my own children once adored, it gave me an idea. What if humans were physically and psychologically joined to birds? 

If what happened to one, happened to the other?

Through environmental storytelling I have decided to portray birds with human bodies, to signify that no ecosystem exists in a vacuum. What happens to animals, birds, vegetation and humans is inevitably tangled together.

3/ Cut them up and arrange so the amalgamated child/bird looks as if they are one species.

                   

     

Draw them with the chosen combination. Then decide

 

4/ Medium - Oils or acrylics?

5/ What will they be doing? Will the backgrounds highlight catastrophic conditions?

6/ Color's, atmosphere.  A reckoning? Warning? 

    Or should I make the threat more subtle? 

    Love this process . . . 

ALCHEMY

We are travelers on a cosmic journey,

stardust swirling and dancing in the eddies

and whirlpools of infinity.

Life is eternal.

We have stopped for a moment 

to encounter each other,

to meet, to love, to share.

This is a precious moment.

It is a little parenthesis in eternity.

-Paulo Coelho

60cm x 60cm

Oil on canvas

In this painting Alchemy, it is about the seemingly magical process of transformation, or creation, or a combination. 

When I think about the children that will live in the future, I feel that the world will desperately need magic, transformation and creation.

The girl in this painting is the gift giver.  She has a plant in her hand, representing new growth. The other is the storytelling. The recorder of history. 

The temple represents fire, earth, air, water and the unknown of the void. The sea represents strength, endlessness and hope. The mat shows new growth. The taking of tea represents harmony, balance, hospitality, and friendship.

The sky has a blush representing the world’s ability to reset. HOPE

   

Growing up in Papua New Guinea, living on an isolated Island in Bougainville, PNG and then moving to acreage in Crossdale, Queensland, I have always felt fortunate to be able to observe and interpret the kaleidoscope of colors and designs, in habitat with areas of natural biodiversity.

I managed both an art supply shop at the Brisbane Institute of Art and an artist’s retreat in the beautiful Somerset Shire for over a decade. And both of these ventures allowed me to learn many creative, technique-based processes. Intaglio, Lino, mono and screen printing, have influenced the way I approach line, composition, design and color. Learning the processes used in sculpture, ceramics and jewelry-making has contributed to the way I process ideas and express spatial form.

I blend my appreciation for compelling narratives with the excitement of manipulating nature’s complex and transient structures. It was Max Ernst (1891 – 1976) who said, ‘an artist must have one eye on the outer world, while the other eye looks towards the inner world.’ And it is with this in mind that I create multi-layered paintings evocative of the landscape, while inserting an irrational or troublesome idea. However, unlike the melancholy of Ernst, I hope my works are a joyful experience, each a visual haiku of a memory I yearn to keep, while encouraging the viewer to connect with their own memories, to generate their own unique narrative.

Birds have always represented wisdom, adaptation, diligence, rebirth, and courage. All the attributes we will need if we wish to repair and maintain our ecosystem. By portraying birds and human children combined, I question, if birds were considered priceless treasures of worth, perhaps our relationship with them and the ecosystem would be more considered. Perhaps if we considered birds as being as valuable to us as our own children, we would apportion them more value—more care?

By using environmental storytelling I hope the viewer will not be instantly repelled by the horror of the concept, but take the time to look at the bright colors, scenery, toys, and allow the images - the time needed - for them to ask their one overriding question: when will we accept that there is a symbiotic relationship between nature, humans and the environs, and that we are all the same when threatened by catastrophic conditions?

Sharon Lee 2020-2024

Japan 2024

 Trip by land and sea. Two weeks by bus and train. 2 weeks on ship. Great but exhausting.

        

Full story on Instagram lees.art

2020 - 2023 Flood, fire and pestilence - But, we are back!!!!!

   At Roo from 2020  -  2024 things have not been boring.

      It has been biblical here at the Roo, with almost all the dreaded horrors visiting us one by one. 

    When I complained about the hardship of having endured a flood, a fire, mouse plague and COVID, my dear friend in America - with a smile in her voice - said, 'Ahh! But have you been visited by falling frogs?' The fact that not long after this conversation, a frog fell from the ceiling and landed on my boob, was enough to stop further speculation or complaints. Because I do not want to hear of any other possibiloities for bad things to happen. 

    But really - it hasn't been all bad!

    I placed photos of the fire on Instagram and lived with the results, so I will not enter them here. 

 

Just saying - while the downstairs living area was being processed, and rebuilt, the upstairs studio received little attention. So limited art was completed. 

2019 - If Nature Was Watching Would You Be Kinder, exhibition at Nona Gallery BIA

2020 - Crossdale 4 Exhibition - Esk Condensary Art Gallery. limited viewing due to covid.

2021 - Crossdale 5 Exhibition - Esk Regional Art Gallery - good turn out, most works sold.

    So pleased we had so much Yang before the Yin.

    We had the most enjoyable 'Grand Tour' in 2019  Traveling through the UK from Devon, Wales and up through to Scotland. Accompanied by Arron and friends we then embarked on an epic cruise - Amsterdam to Budapest. With a week in Budapest and another in Singapore. Brilliant!!!!

We installed a successful Bore, for water, at the Roo. Partied in fancy dress for a significant birthday.

Lost our SNOOPY 18yo

 

Bore - great output

Another Birthday - Ahhhh!

 

Cameron discovered he is allergic to Bees

Cameron had both knee joints replaced.

    

Cameron had several operations for skin cancer and melanoma.

Traveled to Sydney to visit Brianna and Xavier - twice.                            Visited, Noosa and Straddy.

  

 Enjoyed our usual, relaxed, indulgent, happy Christmas's at the Roo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2020 - Fire - entire downstairs sleeping area was gutted. Rebuilt - with improvements.

2020 - COVID - Isolated here with fortnightly trips to Brissy to visit my dad.

We took the opportunity to renovate. Enclosed the entire outside sun area in glass. 

Built a long shade house for our expanding orchid collection.

Built a new kitchen, book shelves, and started the process with council to install a swimming pool.

As soon as the borders were open we took the opportunity to travel. Enjoyed a three week tour of New Zealand by ship, and a four week driving holiday to Tasmania, part-way accompanied by Brianna.

2023 - sold the property that was our Brisbane home and moved to the Roo full time.

2023 - Upstairs furniture discarded and as much as possible everything was cleaned.

2024 January - Studio clean and new furniture installed, and I'm back in my studio.

2024 - is shaping up to be a good Yang year!!!

Arron is off to Japan and is forming a new company.

Brianna has been to Antarctica, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and her new book, 'The Work' is coming out in April.

Have three exhibitions in my sight.

1 - group exhibition, Kilcoy Art Society, gallery members exhibition.

2 - group exhibition - Paint like a Master.

3 - group exhibition - BIRDS - Nona Gallery, BIA

Time to do some work!!!