Phil Stallard: Memory and Place series -
These new landscapes are poetic meditations on places; it is through the act of painting I evoke a Tao kind of essence that I take away from an experience in nature. Over the years I have climbed and explored the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury River (Dyarubbin).
I use memories of these places as a starting point for a painting, details that are vague become colour fields.
I use an interplay between realism and abstraction; oil paint is a very fluid medium and I’m open to improvisation to heighten the experience of the painting. Saturated colours move me to evoke a kind of romanticism with these paintings; an elevated experience.
Phil Stallard, July 2025
Jo Langley:
The selected abstracts for Almost Spring are from works completed between 2023 and 2025. Over this period, I have been further developing my own visual language – a dialogue between myself, brush, paint & surface, exercises in both activity and introspection.
Elements of my internal choreography reveal themselves as the artworks evolve. I do not have a ‘plan’ when I commence a new abstract. Rather, I enjoy and immerse myself in the promise inherent in clean brushstrokes on a fresh surface. Inevitably this navigation leads me in a certain direction and challenges present themselves during the journey. A balance is sought between control and capriciousness, finesse and freshness.
My works on canvas and paper are multi-layered in both substance and metaphysics. Colour, organic shapes and gestural mark-making directly and indirectly reflect memory, landscape and biology. While elements are altered or covered up during their evolution, earlier decisions inform the rebuilding that follows, resulting in cohesive, lyrical compositions that assert their own intense, poetic personality.
N.G Malla:
N.G Malla’s art practice focuses primarily on urban and domestic landscapes; particularly homes and residential neighbourhoods. She is interested in the seemingly ordinary houses and streetscapes across Australia’s inner cities and suburbs and the assumptions we may make about their occupants. Interiors of these homes and their decor, along with still life of Australian native flowers are explored in her modernist style utilising a unique palette and methodolgy.
Mike Wall:
It takes a while to find yourself when you start something new. I first picked up a camera in my 20's and now many decades later I feel comfort in the landscape and presenting family history. I enjoy the process of shooting in film and digital and the invention of different ways to present my work. These latest images are infra red conversions. The subtle changes from the original source provide a hybrid landscape - seductive and silent.
