Nerida Howland
Bright Sky, Open Spaces
an exhibition of landscape based abstract paintings
Opening 5-7pm Saturday 3rd May
Official opening by Mrs Judith Bell
Nerida Howland's first solo show, like an author's first novel, will be quite autoboigraphical.
Her childhood was spent on a farm on the Darling Downs, from which she could see for kilometres in all directions. The flat open farming country was divided by fences that designated the different purposes or stages of growth of each paddock. In summer everything was fresh and green, except for the crops that were ready for harvest, fodder crops for bailing, ploughed red and black soil, ready for winter crops and the contrasting vibrant orange of the sorghum are all images imprinted indelibly on her memory.
Nerida's new series of paintings on show in the gallery in May 2008 are full of the light, bright openness of this landscape. The contrasting coloured shapes in the land are interrupted by structures, roads, power lines and fences...the cultivated land or more precisely man's marks on the land,or how we as settlers have shaped and marked the land, are Nerida's source material. The paintings are abstract works, but have their genesis in these responses.
Nerida cites Richard Diebenkorn, Willem de Kooning and Brett Whitely among her influences.
She has produced many of the works for this exhibition in an old school building on her parents' Jandowae property, although she currently resides on Brisbane's southside.
Nerida has a post-graduate degree in Education with an art major from Griffith University and is a member of a Brisbane artists' collective tutored by Irene Amos. Many community and educational projects have benefited from her involvement.
There are 40 new paintings in this exhibition. A small selection only is shown below. You need to come into the gallery to really sense these works.
On a frosty Morning by Nerida Howland 76 x 61cm
Golden Years 76 x 61cm
The Meeting Place 40x30cm
Red and Black Soil Paddocks 154x93cm
"Road to Rosevale" 26x21cm
"Distant Ocean" 26x21cm
"Patchwork Hill" 26x21cm