Art Gallery

This exhibition is a unique opportunity to peer into a slice of WA art history when artists of Darlington and surrounds became a part of a dynamic creative community and in doing so forged new directions in art making.

The Janet Holmes à Court Collection now holds over four thousand artworks, and, as with all art collections, it began with simply a few. As residents of Darlington, Janet and Robert Holmes à Court acquired three artworks from the 1968 Darlington Arts and Craft exhibition. These artworks inaugurated the Collection and remain an important part of its identity through to today. The Hills, An Artist’ Gathering is an opportunity to see such artworks in the company of other artworks by artists significant to the history of Western Australian art, who lived and work in the hills.

Drift Woods is a solo exhibition by Elmari Steyn featuring a considered selection of recent art works. Steyn’s unique-state etching prints take the viewer into a wandering, many-pathed narrative journey; into exquisitely detailed worlds of wonder, sadness and delight. Drawing on her background in Namibia, Steyn folds personal stories into the familiar subject matter of trees and boats, often pictured in unison. Trees and boats become places of mystery that compel the imagination. They hold memories and emotions. Tree houses and boat houses feature as evocative of the idea of home, as well as holding a sense of child-like wonder and playfulness. Throughout the works there is a frisson between transience and stasis, between putting down roots and taking to the skies or seas. Drift Woods enables you to consider these states of stillness and movement as you enter and drift through entrancing realms of the imagination.

Featured: Elmari Steyn, Story Tree, copyright of the artist.