Friday 25 January 2008

all in a day's work........skiving off

Yesterday was a long day. There was a crew from Channel 10 in the studio filming a segment for All in a Day's Work (it's on the morning program). It took 4 hours, which in the scheme of things isn't that long but you wouldn't believe how tired and brain dead I was afterwards.
So today, after a bit of business inn the morning, I got in the car and went to Bendigo- again. This time I remember to go to the Bendigo Art Gallery to see The Long Weekend- Australians in Paris exhibition. It is small but very well worth taking the trip to see.
It might also be because I am total besotted with the whole between the wars era at the moment. The Agnes Goodsir portraits are just fabulous but I really fell in love with the Bessie Davidson interiors, in fact all the interiors painted by women artists are just luminous. The colours are so manky and subdued, teals, dirty greys, khakis and eau-de-nils offset with glowing corals, geranium reds and pinks and amazing inky blues. I want one!



Above is Hilda Rix Nicholas' studio and in the exhibition it is partnered with Bessie Davidson's studio painting (which I can't find an image of, so I've included Madame Roy instead), in amongst the muted male cityscapes they just sing.



Bendigo Art Gallery is one of those regional galleries that really put on a good show. The goldrush inspired purchases are a hoot, everything from over the top carved Australiana sideboards, Victorian Grand Tour marbles to one of the funniest- a painting by Herr Schmaltz, and it definitely was! Oh and for our dear Ramona, they have a delightful miniature on ivory of Madame du Barry. A really fine little gallery.

2 comments:

  1. Dear Miss P, I do adore Bendigo Art Gallery and your evocative colour palette descriptions of those enterior paintings left me swooning - a must see I think
    Rx

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  2. Bessie's paintings just make me want to step right in and sit down for a cup of tea. The light is just so un-Australian, making the even the 'dullest' colours somehow saturated.

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