Being inspired.

When I visit an art gallery I leave inspired. I should visit one more often. Recently I went along to the National Gallery of Victoria's "Radiance: The Neo-Impressionists" temporary exhibition. There were pieces from Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Théo Van Rysselberhge, Henri-Edmond Cross and Maximilien Luce, to name but some of the artists. While I am not a huge fan of this style of painting, some of the pieces really speak to me. Unfortunately Georges Seurat's 'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'  was shamefully absent from the exhibition. This piece has become a part of my psyche, all because of the 1986 film 'Ferris Buellers Day Off' . Tragic? Yes. There is a brillaint scene in the film where one of the characters is transfixed by the almost blank face of a girl in the painting...He identifies with her as he questions his own sense of self and his direction in life. To accompany this is a beautiful instrumental cover of The Smiths track 'Please, please, please let me get what I want'.

Georges Seurat:  'A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte'A (1884).

Anyway, while Seurat's masterpiece was not there for us, there were more than enough amazing works to fill me with inspiration! Here are two photographs where I have chosen to capture only a small detail of the larger piece.

Paul SIGNAC, (detail of)  Saint-Tropez. After the storm, 1895.

Paul SIGNAC, (detail of) Juan-les-Pins. Evening (first version), 1914.

Moving on to something more local and as inspiring, is an exhibition a friend strongly suggested I go to see. She thought I would like it and boy was she bang on the money!

"Control study" is a joint/collaborative exhibition by Vivian Cooper Smith + Jon Butt

It is on at the St Heliers Street Gallery at the Abbotsford Convent, until the 2nd of December, so make sure you get in before you miss out!

Here is a snippet from their information sheet (which is well worth the read): "Both artists work in a way whereby the landscape is firstly absorbed and then re-imagined through the creative process. This action takes many forms including literally cutting or crumpling the image, filtering colours, using random artifacts and paring back formal elements to a pure state"

If that in itself isn't enough to make you want to saunter down to the convent, crab a coffee or a bite to eat and stroll through the galleries, then here are a couple of images I sneakily of took of some of Vivian Cooper Smith's work (p.s. If someone wants to donate a pile of cash to me, so that I can buy some of these pieces, St Peter will note it in the great book above!):

Lastly, whilst at the Convent I also checked out the really cool c3 contemporary art space.
It is a lovely and inviting gallery. I fell in love with a few pieces from the current exhibition by Interact Arts called 'Retroactive'.. again offers of cash to assist me in buying some of these works are welcome ;-)

I have forgotten the names of these artists (who's images I cheekily photographed for the purposes of this blog), but go and check the exhibition out, as the pieces are so much better than these photographs suggest!

So a huge thank you Emma Langridge for not only suggesting this exhibition, but also for making great art! If you haven't already seen any of Emma's works, you can right now via her cool website:  www.emmalangridge.com

If you need to be inspired, picked up, perked up or just want something different in your day, then think about visiting an art gallery. National or local it doesn't matter, just go. The art works are always changing, so you can never ever become bored, and you may even leave feeling inspired, just like me!


Photographs by me, but copyright of art work belongs to the artists, 2012