Monday 19 December 2016

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from The Wild Swan Art Group


To all 
our 

Supporters & Friends

Merry Christmas
and have a 
Happy/Prosperous New Year 

The group is looking forward to bringing you more exhibitions in east and south Asia 

in 

2017

Monday 5 December 2016

Aesthetic Visions in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia


International art and music festivals don’t happen by magic but the Kuching International Festival of Music and Arts is taking place between 18 November and 18 December, 2016. This would not have happened but for the vision and energy of Dr Geraldine Law Lee and her sister Grace as well as members of this International Music House in Kuching who are the driving force behind this first International Music and Arts Festival in Kuching; they’ve put a fantastic effort together to make it happen in such an enchanted place.

The opening night of the festival was upon us now and the Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg who is also the Minister of Housing and Urbanization, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture Sarawak opened the festival.



Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg
Opening speech reflected a very impressive attitude towards music, arts and culture






The Old Kuching Museum

A

As part of the Festival, the Wild Swans exhibition was set up in the old British Court House by the river, an interesting experience for this really was uncharted territory for Western Australian Artists and their artworks.





Professor Diana Davis from the Australian National University talking with audience members


One has travelled the world somewhat and Kuching, Sarawak as one viewed it whilst walking around and looking out the hotel window towards Indonesia, appears to be an unspoilt aesthetic jewel with a harmonious blending of cultures ancient and exotic, with architecture to match; it’s an outstanding place for any artist to visit or anybody else for that matter. One can only hope that this wonderful city continues to show its fantastic passion and aesthetic vision to the world and then, when the new museum is built, one believes it will be another jewel in the crown of the State of Sarawak, Malaysia.





Thursday 22 September 2016

The Wild Swan Art Group - One day exhibition at Okinawa Prefecture Museum and Museum of Art - Public Gallery 3


Part of the Audience 



The artists on show

 Duncan McKay, John Cullinane, Michael Doherty, Connie Petrillo, Kevin Robertson, Peter Davidson, Cynthia Ellis,  Caspar  Fairhall,  Diokno Pasilan, Chelle Bourne  and Lynne Norton

 I didn’t think the Wild Swan Art Groups show would go ahead as a heavy typhoon was bearing down on the Island of Okinawa but as luck would have it, the storm went further west and we could land.
 At Naha Airport, Okinawa  glancing out to the distant sea there was this impending heavy grey gloom on the far sea horizon being the torrential rains which came for a while that afternoon whilst the Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition was on display.

Okinawa

The Wild Swan Art Groups exhibition in Public Gallery no 3 within the museum was a very good idea, for it allows the community to see an international exhibition and also what their major collection holds all under one roof. 
The individual groups or artists that exhibit in these public gallery spaces have the opportunity to see and experience the museum’s quality exhibition facilities, especially the lighting which is vastly different to most gallery lighting systems as iut infused natural skylight with internal lighting systems with brilliant effect and calrity on the artworks. Having the opportunity to exhibit in professionally constructed museum quality venues is important to the artists, groups and curators for it allows them to observe their artworks in a high quality space which really does shift the viewing experience from just casual to a more forensic analysis.  For the audiences/artist alike, it’s mutually beneficial in the sense it brings new audiences to experience the museum and your artworks.

Peter Davidson 
View from Okinawa Bridge 2015
oil on board
10.7 h cm x 46.5 cm w

The other issue that became obvious in exhibiting within a museum was the enquiry that the audience was able to do for each artwork, one noticed they really did take time to peruse each artwork and talk about it with their friends and when you spoke to them some of the questions they started asking were really difficult but pertinent to the show.



For example, a Chinese gentleman came into the exhibition and started talking about my artworks especially the magenta markings that were imbued within my image. This caught me off guard as it has historical precedents to Cezanne, Coldstream and in current personal research to the human Inner GPS whether that’s true or not as I said to the Chinese Doctor and his friend, " I don’t know Im not a medical scientist but it’s something I am researching".  What also surprised me was how forensic the questions were by these Chinese gentlemen and the depth of their knowledge on art and how they spoke about the subtleties of tones and hues passionately, it was a long and inspiring conversation with them.  
It was a successful exhibition by The Wild Swan Art Group, approximately one hundred people came from the Okinawan and international tourist community, despite the heavy typhoon rain at times. This was a very good result for the one day lightening exhibition series. 

Tuesday 26 July 2016

News and studios of the Wild Swan Art Group




 Recent July Winter Meeting in Perth 
with  
The Wild Swan Art Group from Western Australia

Left to Right Dr Duncan McKay, John Cullinane, Michael Doherty, Connie Petrillo, Kevin Robertson and Peter Davidson taking photograph 

Cynthia Ellis,  Caspar Fairhall,  Diokno PasilanChelle Bourne  and Lynne Norton absent

On the 18 of September The Wild Swan Art Group will be holding there second exhibition in Japan at The Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum in the Public Gallery for a one day lighting exhibition, the group looks forward to the occasion and the response of the Okinawan peoples. 





News about individuals within the group and their recent achievements

 Lynne Norton and the  Australian War Memorial 

Lynne received a call from the Australian War Memorial last week advising her of a presentation to the outgoing Chairman of the Board of the AWM, Canberra,  Ken Doolan AO of a reproduction of her work for his present, she researched  him and found he had been CO of the ship, well done Lynne see link below.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/australianwarmemorial/27549673114/





Diokno Pasilan installation Ballarat Laneways Luminaries Festival

Below is the stunning installation by Diokno for Ballarat Laneways Luminaries Festival. Made of recycled milk bottle and LED lights at the Lost Ones Gallery.





Photo Diokno Pasilin


Caspar Fairhall

will be having a solo exhibition at
Gallerysmith Project Space in North Melbourne Victoria

details and link below

CASPAR FAIRHALL
Nine Times the Space
September 22 – October 8

Exhibition opening, Saturday September 24, 2-4pm
http://www.gsprojectspace.com/exhibitions/



Cynthia Ellis and Micheal Doherty 
will be exhbiting at the 
'Scene' 
Exhibition
 in Western Australia at 
Nyisztor Studio
Next Saturday July 30th
link is here 
http://www.nyisztorstudio.com.au/exhibitions.htm

Below is some of the artist's studios 


Peter Davidson's Western Australian studio (Father's garage)


Chelle Bourne - studio


Cynthia Ellis - studio

Tuesday 28 June 2016

The Wild Swan Art Group will soon fly to Okinawa



Okinawa Study by Peter Davidson

Tomorrow is the last appointment viewing day at Gallery Opera Labo in Nishi Ku, Japan for the Wild Swan Art Group, it will then travel for a one day  lighting exhibition at The People’s Gallery which is located in the Okinawa Prefectural Museum & Art Museum. 

The Wild Swan Art Group from Western Australia has started very successfully in Japan, at  Gallery Opera Labo and the comments have been very favourable towards the artworks, and now through the Internet the artists and the Japanese audiences have started to engage in a dialogue, which on the face of it is mutually educating on both sides in terms of what they can understand from each other’s culture and aesthetic, that has been one of the positive aspects of this venture.

The Okinawa exhibition will take place in September and it will be works on paper, there will also be some different artworks going to replace the paintings, it will not be the same exhibition as in Gallery Opera Labo.

It will be very interesting to see how the Okinawans view the Western Australian artworks because it’s surrounded by sea and has a more laid back lifestyle than mainland Japan ,which moves at a very fast pace. In somes ways Okinawa is a bit like the seaside culture of Perth, very relaxed or as they say in Japan: NONKI which translates into English as happy go lucky, so it will be interesting to see how these two beach focused cultures relate to each other.

Lastly, a special thanks from the Wild Swan Art Group to Makiko Karitani/Gallery Opera Labo along with her customers for attending the exhibition, there is no doubt we hope return again sometime in the near future, thank you.

Sunday 15 May 2016

Many of the artworks for the The Wild Swans Art Groups exhibition at Gallerry Opera Labo are now in Japan here are a few.


John Cullinane's painting titled; Birdman - oil on cotton - 25 cm x 20cm


Lynne Norton's outstanding print that won the “Excellent Prize” in Qingdao Biennial International Print Exhibition 2000 (CHINA) titled “Impetuous Momentum”


Michael Doherty's painting titled: Time and Tide 
oil on canvas


This is a small selection of very fine idiosyncratic artworks that are now travelling to or are in Japan for the first exhibition at Makiko Karitani's Opera Labo Gallery, and it appears the Nishi ku community of Kobe are very much looking forward to seeing the artworks. 

One of the very good issues that seems to be happening in this gathering of artworks by Western Australian artists in Japan is the uniqueness of their aesthetic visions and one believes this will be one of the better consequences that will happen from assembling such a collection of artists.


Makiko Karitani  
Soprano and Gallerist 
Gallery Opera Labo


The Wild Swans Arts Group is appreciative of Makiko Karitani's support for the first exhibition in Japan, if you wish to see more on Makiko's Gallery Opera Labo please click on the following link below, thank you. 

English Site 
http://galleryoperalabo.blogspot.jp/

Japanese Site
http://maki51.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/

Saturday 7 May 2016

The Wild Swan artworks start assembling in Kobe - Japan





Dawn
Michael Doherty


City Scape
M L Norton 



Study of Mum
P Davidson


The artworks from The Wild Swans Art Group are now gathering at the edge of the old Kyoto foreign lands, (as it was known around the time when the Tale of Genji that was written around the 11th century) in Nishi Ku - Kobe behind Akashi.

For a group of artists who mostly have spent all their artistic lives in one of the most distant cities on earth being Perth, Western Australia, then coming to exhibit in one of the great aesthetic triangles of the world being Nara, Kyoto and Kobe with Osaka in the middle, is a humbling experience. 

Nonetheless, the Wild Swans Art Group are here to exhibit/learn and where these uncharted aesthetic travels go collectively and independently one does not know, but it does start in Japan at Gallery Opera Labo and the momentum, along with the local peoples anticipation for the show is gathering, further updates will be posted in the near future, thank you.

Tale of Genji Link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Genji



Friday 29 April 2016

The Wild Swan Arts Group - Western Australia - Towards Uncharted Aesthetic Horizons


Left to right  Duncan McKay, Connie Petrillo Caspar Fairhall, Kevin Robertson, Cynthia Ellis, Peter Davidson, Michael Doherty, John Cullinane other members not present are Chelle Bourne, Lynne Norton and Diokno Pasilan



On April 28th 2016 The Wild Swan Arts Group was formed and the artists will now work towards the groups first international exhibition in Japan at Gallery Opera Labo in Nishi Ku, Kobe in June 2016. 



The Wild Swan Arts Group looks forward very much to exhibiting in Japan and are very aware of the long and distinguished history of Japanese art which will no doubt only add to the drive that these artists have within their aesthetics studio praxis for this forth coming exhibition.

It appears throughout Western Australia's short aesthetic history in comparison with the long histories of aesthetics in East Asia there has been not a lot of exchange with Japan. The Wild Swan Arts Groups looks forward to exhibiting in Japan on a regular basis and hopefully in the future with invited artists from within the region in unity and diversity.

Link to Gallery Opera Labo

http://galleryoperalabo.blogspot.com.au/