Q&A with Emma McNamara

Who are you and what do you do?

Hello I’m Emma McNamara, I’m a landscape painter, sometimes they verge on abstracts.

What’s your background?

In my former life, I was an Interior Designer and Textile Designer. Composition, colour and line have always been hugely important in my work and this has translated into my art practice. I spent my early life in regional country NSW, and I have an innate sense of this landscape. My sense of contrast between rural and urban sensibilities translates through my use of colour and mark-making, the sense of light in my pieces and importantly the composition. Composition is so important as it is truly dictates how you experience a piece. Mark-making is also central to my work- both in the painterly lines and the oil stick marks- they are the emotion and the sensory part of the landscapes.

How do you work?

My landscapes are painted from memories & studies created whilst working en-plein air. Studies are vital to my practice - they are like the road-map of sorts. Colour, composition and the tone of the piece are all worked out through studies. Having said that, the final piece is very much it’s own realised work, and can often differ immensely from the study- pieces do take on a life of their own and you never know what a smudgy line is going to do, or what the work will call for. I try to follow the map, but the road - the canvas in front of me, is always right.

Artworks featured in Sydney Road Gallery
Left: Dancing Gums | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 50 x 50 cm | $545 | More Info
Right: Turon River Gums | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 51 x 61 cm | $595 | More info

---

What themes does your art pursue?

Every landscape has a resonance, a feeling and a presence. My landscapes are sensory reflections of place. Humans are deeply connected to the energy of the landscape, whether we realise it or not. My pieces serve as echos of memory to help us remember our interconnected relationship with the land.
 

What’s your favourite art work?

I can’t pick one! My favourite artists- who create art I feel most connected to - are Catherine Cassidy, Elisabeth Cummings & Charlie Sheard. Their pieces have an energy that is immersive!

Name something you love, and why.

Travelling! There is nothing more exciting than discovering new places, new vistas, meeting people who live differently to you and eating great food from somewhere you have always wanted to go.

What is your preferred medium to work with?

Acrylic and oil. Oil sticks are so much fun and can convey such emotion.

Bluebark Country | Acrylic and Oil on Canvas Framed in Grove | 31 x 40 cm | $380 | More info

Q&A with Helen Proctor

Who are you and what do you do?
My name is Helen Proctor, I am 34 and currently living in Amsterdam, Netherlands. I am originally from Sydney but have spent the last 4 years working in Europe. My current focus is on abstract landscape painting both in the studio and on large-scale mural projects. In my work I like to explore the use of colour and methods of abstraction to depict the emotional nostalgia that is revived from personal connection to place.

What’s your background?
I grew up in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. I spent my days running around the bush, finding waterholes and building tree houses. I also developed my skills with a spray can and started doing large-scale street art projects. This eventually led me to travel and paint all around the world developing a distinct style that merges traditional landscape painting with an abstract street style.

How do you work?
I find most of my influence from travelling as well as locations that I have a strong personal connection too. I usually work from photographs or sketches I have taken myself. Lately I have been experimenting more with digital sketches and compositions.

What’s your work-day like?
Coffee, a walk around the park, then I get all the life admin out of the way like emails or posting things. Once I get into the studio I will listen to podcasts or the radio and paint away the day. If I’m working on a mural project then it usually involves a lot more coffee and being covered in a lot more paint.

Artworks featured in Sydney Road Gallery
Left: Shack on Inlet | Acrylic on Canvas Framed in Oak | 60 x 40 cm | SOLD
Right: House on Headland | Acrylic on Canvas Framed in Oak | 60 x 40 cm | SOLD

---

Describe the space where you create?
Before the lockdowns I had a studio in an old dental hospital that had been converted into a huge complex of artists studios. Now I paint in a little studio from home. With the size restrictions I have been creating smaller works that usual but it has been a nice challenge.

How have you developed your career?
I have always pursued an artistic practice but my style has changed throughout my life. It has only been in the last 6 or 7 years that I have been working on these particular themes. I have always worked on large-scale street projects and this has helped me get exposure in the local community.
Participation in group exhibitions and mural festivals has also led me to meeting amazing artists and curators that I get to now get to collaborate with. Moving to Europe has been a challenge but it has really made me put myself out there and push my practice in new directions.

What’s your favourite art work?
I am currently looking into the Impressionists and Fauvist movements as I have just come back from an artist residency in the South of France where many of the works where created. Looking at the colours and techniques of André Derain and Paul Cezanne has been very influential.

The Floor Is Lava - Daniel Breda

Exhibition: Monday 14th - Sunday 20th June 2021 

‘The Floor is Lava’ is the first of the ‘Fast and Furious’ series held at Sydney Road Gallery and the fourth solo exhibition by Wollongong based emerging artist Daniel Breda. Breda’s painting process examines organic and mechanical space in both medium and subject matter through the juxtaposition of synthetic coloured hard-edge abstraction and representations of nature. 

In this exhibition, Breda extends on his practice of installation and traditional painting in the gallery space through the adaptation of childhood thematics. Nostalgically a childhood game, The Floor is Lava is an imaginary game where players pretend that the ground is made of Lava. Traditionally, players are to be mobile and are required to avoid the floor by diverging with the rooms’ furniture or architecture. Much like mobility in the gallery space - gallery attendees are required to avoid the touching of artworks. In this exhibition, participants will guide themselves through the space, observing the traditional paintings on top of the lava floor, where they become at ease with walking on the artworks, or lava and adjust to the proposed anti-sentiment of paintings fragility. 

Within his practice, Breda aims to transition the community engagement intentions and aspects of site-specific public art, to the gallery setting. In doing so, we can begin deconstructing the spectacle of site-specific public art and substitute it with the spectacle of human action and movement in space.

Q&A with Gail Affleck

Who are you and what do you do?
Gail Affleck – artist, painting has always given me joy I have been painted since high school.

What’s your background?
I grew up in Lane Cove Sydney, moved to the country in the 1980s and fell in love with the Australian landscape while farming in Tumut, NSW. Married with two children in tow, I moved north to the Sunshine Coast, where we now call home. I am currently living and working in Apollo Bay Victoria on the Great Ocean Road, returning to the Sunshine Coast this year. The Australian landscape and the sea have become significant influences in my art.

How do you work?
I usually have multiple works on the go at the same time. I work predominately in acrylic and oil pastel on linen. I occasionally work in watercolours and other mixed media. I generally work in the morning after taking my dog for a walk along the beaches around Apollo Bay. I approach my work without too much preconceived idea of the final work. I am fortunate to have a lovely north facing room with lots of glass.

How has your practice changed over time?
The main change is mediums, I have moved from watercolours and oils on canvas, to Acrylics and oil pastels on Linen.

Nature’s theatre

155 x 94cm. Acrylic and Oil Pastel on Linen. Framed. $3,750 AUD

Name something you love, and why.
My Family full of creative beings full of adventure and fun. I fall in love with all of them more each day.

Favourite or most inspirational place?
The Coastal walking tracks between Sunshine Beach to Noosa Heads, through the stunning Noosa National Park. The lovely transition between beautiful landscape and breath-taking Coastal views inspires me every time I walk.

What’s your musical playlist while practicing art? Which tunes inspire you?
Currently my favourite young artist is Mia Wray. Others would be Passenger and still a bit of Bob Dylan. I enjoy a good podcast as well.

What is the Sydney Road Gallery Experience for you?
It is new concept for me, offering lots of innovative and exciting ideas with a great support network of other wonderful artists.

Behind the Brush with Ben Lucas

Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Ben Lucas, I live with my wife and grown up sons (when they are home) on the coast in Noosa. I’m an artist who paints the seas and skies that I see around me.
 

Why do you do what you do?
I once did an online questionnaire to evaluate what my motivations were. The results suggested that I am motivated and inspired by beauty in nature and the arts, which I think is very true. I’m aware that the concept of beauty is very subjective but at the moment I’m totally swept up in the colours and light of the ocean and the sky which seems to me to be an inexhaustible subject and one that brings me great joy.

What’s your background?
My creative background began at a very early age, my mother was telling me recently about how as a young child I would draw for hours, in particular she remembers seeing me draw with one quick continuous unbroken line a pair of fighting cockerels in combat. I trained in design and then worked with clay as a studio potter. After moving to New Zealand I was inspired by the beautiful skies over the Southern Alps to paint again. Initially I worked with water colours as the medium helped me to capture the translucency that I was fascinated by. On moving to Australia I began to paint in oils as I wanted to be able to scale up the paintings. Part of my journey in using oils has been to work with a sense of freedom and achieve the luminous translucent sense of light that I had with the watercolours. 

How do you work?
I paint on a flat surface and use various flat tools to initially draft in the sense of light and dark then I transition to brushes in the later stages. I try to approach the canvas without too much of a preconceived idea of the final image and then work quickly and intuitively as I am looking for a sense of immediacy and a vibrancy that can sometimes be lost if the painting is overworked. It’s hard to describe but when a painting is going well I have response to it which is quite deep and not on a cognitive level and this is something that I try to tune into as I work.

What’s your work-day like?
There is no set pattern, the morning normally starts with a walk or a surf depending on the conditions. If it’s a painting day I like to start with a whole clear day ahead without much threat of interruption. I find that it helps to have breaks in the painting cycle, to walk away as it helps to see the painting afresh on returning to it. This is also true in the longer sense as I tend to have cycles of intense painting followed by breaks as I find that on returning it’s often that new things can emerge.

Describe the space where you create?
I paint in natural light under a large south facing deck so the light is fantastic, I am surrounded by mature trees and birdsong so its a lovely space.

How has your practice changed over time?
The main change is my palette has expanded from a very minimal palette based around Prussian blue and translucent whites to what is now a broad range of colours - I am particularly taken with a dark indigo at the moment.

How have you developed your career?
I am naturally quite a reserved person so I think I have relied upon the paintings doing the talking which has meant that my art career has developed in a very organic way, but when I look back I can see how it has all linked together to lead me to where I am at the moment. I Have been fortunate to have had the support of some great galleries and had the opportunity to be involved I several group and solo shows and I have enjoyed some success in art awards being recipient of the Alan Reading Memorial Art Prize for contemporary painting and been a finalist in several art prizes.

What’s the best thing about being an artist?
For me the best thing is that I’m convinced it’s what I am meant to be doing. Which doesn’t mean it’s always easy but it can be incredibly satisfying and fulfilling when it goes well.

What themes does your art pursue?
My art is inspired by the natural world but it also carries an emotional quality that transcends this. One of the most amazing experiences as an artist is to se the effect that your paintings can have on people, how emotions and memories can be stirred in the viewer. It’s also wonderful thing to hear as an artist how a painting can bring someone a sense of happiness or peace.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
Years ago before I had started painting was once walking home and I noticed a large rectangle of marine ply leaning against a wall, as I looked at I had a revelation that I needed to take it home and paint on it. I decided to leave it to fate and so I said to myself that if it was still there the next day I would grab it. It was there and I suppose that was the start of something.

towards meridien

1,700.00
Oil on Canvas. Framed.
61 x 61cm
view here

What’s your most embarrassing moment?
There’s been a few, thankfully I must have successfully erased them though because no one thing comes to mind.

What’s a happy memory from your childhood?
My happiest childhood memories are of our local beach in the summertime - swimming and playing in the water and then lying on the sun warmed rocks.

What’s your favourite art work?
I don’t have one favourite artwork, but my favourite art experience is the Rothko room at the Tate Gallery in London. I remember being struck silent by the beauty and Power of the paintings as a teenager and I think the experience was a foundational one in my artistic journey.

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
All sorts, but the main one was as a studio potter making hand thrown earthenware alongside my wife at our pottery/gallery on the Cornish coast. I have also worked as a graphic designer/creative director and small stint as a journalist.

Name something you love, and why.
We have a small porcelain bowl made by the famous ceramicist Dame Lucie Rie, which belonged to my Grandfather Colin Lucas. It’s very simple and beautiful and has a quiet serenity about it.

Favourite or most inspirational place?
It would be a clifftop somewhere over the coast with the expanse of the sky reflecting over the ocean like a vast mirror below me.

What’s your musical playlist while practicing art? Which tunes inspire you?
I love old gospel music, like the Swan Silvertones and the Staple Singers it has such a joyful sound that I like to think it somehow seeps into the paintings. I also have a nostalgic love of 90s hip hop and house music.

What is your preferred medium to work with?
Oil on canvas or linen - I like to have a bit of ‘tooth’ on the surface to help grip the paint.

Which artists do you collect?
I have some paintings by the late Peter Rush who painted wonderful expressive vigorous landscapes - he was quite an inspiration for me.

What is the Sydney Road Gallery Experience for you?
It’s a new experience for me but an exciting one, I see the gallery as a place where I can learn and grow and be encouraged and stretched to be a more rounded and better at all the skills one needs to have to be an artist these days.

Guest Artists Group Show: In The Frame

This exhibition is a joint initiative with ArtSmart Framing, guest artists have been invited to be part of this group show.  Sarah Montgomery, Sydney Road Gallery's passionate curator has been so inspired by the diversity of artists producing work in this area, that an exhibition of local artists seemed important to showcase.

“We feel fortunate to provide custom framing solutions for many talented artists in our community, this exhibition is a way to collaborate and celebrate art in a contemporary gallery space. ArtSmart is about Supporting, Connecting and Promoting Local Artists, this exhibition is a great way to achieve this as Sydney Road Gallery provides a professional platform for artists and art buyers to connect.” ArtSmart

Exhibition Duration: Thursday 8th April until May 2nd 2021. 

Artists featured are: Kate Gradwell; Katherine Edney; David Wiggs; Tony Belobrajdic and Petra Pinn.

For artwork enquiries please contact us.

Artist Spotlight: Amanda Tye

Who are you?
My name is Amanda Tye and I work full time as an artist in Sydney Australia. I am best known for my modern landscape paintings.

How do you work?
I explore my subject matter, mainly natural landscape, during different times of the day and under various weather conditions. I avoid places when people are present and I photograph everything. I then draw straight onto the canvas or board using mainly charcoal and explore the composition using washes. OiIs are my medium of choice as my process results in a lot of push and pull to work out the final composition. I am quite impatient and I like to work quickly and on a large scale as this suits my energy levels.

Why do you do what you do?
After perusing several different creative careers over the past 20 years, painting full time is where I feel most authentic. I am continually striving to create better work and I am addicted to the process.

What’s your work-day like?
Going for an early walk with my dog is the best start to my day and I like to be at my studio before 9am when the light is bright. Coffee then music and I sit in my cane chair to find my bearings. I then tend to move straight onto painting and work all day until about 4pm when the light starts to warm. I use music to keep my energy high.

Describe the space where you create?
My studio is about 15mins from my home on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. It is a large garage with high ceilings and is tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac in the bush. I have a snake in the roof, regular visits from bush turkeys and a family of kookaburras that live in the huge gum trees that surround the property. The down side is it leaks and funnel webs appear now and then, but that’s Australia for you!

How has your practice changed over time?
In my early paintings I only ever used a palette knife and oil paint and rarely drew on the surface, I often used strong colour and thick impasto . After getting sick I eliminated toxins out of my environment, which lead me to work with acrylics for about 5 years and this is when paint brushes and drawing mediums crept onto the scene, these works were more detailed and subtle in nature. More recently I have switched back to using predominantly oil paint and brushes. I have always photographed my subject matter and then worked straight onto the support.

How have you developed your career?
I studied Fine Arts majoring in sculpture at UNSW COFA. Then after working for Wellbeing Magazine and as a portrait photographer, and while bringing up a young family I went back to study a BA Art Education. I had a career for 15 years as a Secondary School Visual Arts Teacher, where I taught in a part-time position, Photography & digital media, Visual Design and Visual Arts at a selective high school in Sydney. I continued to practice my artmaking, completing commissions, exhibiting and entering competitions. I left my teaching position to pursue painting full time in 2017.

I have been a finalist in the Southern Buoy Landscape Prize 2020, Glover Art Prize 2019, The Fleurieu Art Prize 2018, Mosman Art Prize 2015, and twice winner of the People’s Choice Warringah Art Prize (Northern Beaches Art Prize). I have had solo shows at Thienny Lee Gallery, Edgecliff and Sydney Road Gallery, Balgowlah and exhbitied in many group shows across Australia.
What themes does your art pursue?Escapism is something I was always searching for and the quiet natural Australian landscape, offered this plane to dive into. I found that using ruled lines and breaking the composition down into geometric shapes gave me a way to bring order to a life that felt out of control.

However, since leaving teaching and moving to live in a quiet environment, my life now ticks to the pace that feels true - I no longer feel the need to escape. The Australian natural landscape is my immediate reality, itis all around me and my art is an extension of my experiences, my language and now my obsession. I am excited to see what my next body of work explores and if my style changes now I now longer need to escape the stresses of city life.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
My latest series of work “Still Water Runs Deep” was inspired by a sailing trip on the Hawkesbury River, late 2019. During this time the fires burnt out of control and after
an experience of nearly losing my childhood home to bush fires, it triggered a deep primal terror in me. I explored the contradiction of being surrounded by absolute peace and having the most beautiful, still and tranquil environment directly in front of me, yet at the same time I was riddled with fear and anxiety by fires that burnt more than 100km away.

What’s your favourite artwork?
I love so so many artworks, I can’t give you just one, and like the saying goes “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I think it’s the same with art…. When I viewed Brett Whiteleys’ large 18 panel work ‘Alchemy” was a pretty inspiring moment. The other was exploring Rodins sculpture garden in Paris and finally going to the Biennale of Sydney with a group of year 11 students on Cockatoo island experiencing installations by Mike Parrs and William Kentridge… but the list goes on!

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
I worked as Assistant manager and make-up artist for The Body Shop, as a nanny, in sales for Wellbeing Magazine, a book illustrator, as a portrait photographer and school photographer, and finally a high school visual arts and photography teacher for 15 years

Favourite or most inspirational place?
Kings canyon and Devils marbles viewed at dawn

What’s your musical playlist while practicing art?
Which tunes inspire you?
I rarely paint without music. My spotify list has hundreds of songs but I tend to choose based on my mood. Most of the time I use music to increase my energy and love dance and hip hop… right this second I’m listening to Make luv- live by room 5.

Which artists do you collect?
I have a small collection including a Ben Waters painting a Sarah Montgomery etching and I did an art swap with Fiona Chandler.

What is the Sydney Road Gallery Experience for you?
Sydney Road Gallery is all about community and having friends that are artists too. Without it I would be alone in a studio all day everyday. The gallery has also pushed me to try new things in my practice such as still life and black and white, and it gives me great opportunities to exhibit my work along side other artists and to have solo shows.

Bringing Art Into Your Home – By Fiona Chandler

Bringing Art Into Your Home - By Fiona Chandler

 Traditionally walking into a gallery was your option, or an introduction to an artist but all that has changed. With a myriad of choices and so many ways to buy art these days including; online, art galleries, instagram, direct from artists. There is no right or wrong way to buy art. There is so much pleasure getting to know the artwork, hours of contemplation noticing a few more details each time. Artwork can tell a story, evoke memories, and stir emotions; reminder of who you were with the day you bought it, a special gift from someone, a sense of joy at your new treasure. It can be overwhelming and confusing but a great original work of art can add to your home forever and once you start, I am warning you well in advance, it can be addictive.

Galleries are spaces for conversation. They do not expect you to be experts, they are happy to answer questions about the art, artist or upcoming shows. Not everyone walks in with a blank chequebook ( do they even exist anymore). You may like the look of a gallery and pop in from time to time, for years sometimes, before you see anything that is right for you. Galleries also understand you often fall in love out of your price bracket and are happy to let you pay a bit at a time. You can ask if the artist takes commissions, bigger, smaller, similar. Original artworks can start at as little as $100 for unframed works. Bear in mind most galleries commission is 40-50% so the artist is working hard for the money.

 Galleries are also on instagram. Again visit often, get to know the gallery or artist and the work they do. Ask questions. Direct Message if you are shy. There are no silly questions. You have no idea how happy a red dot or sold sticker makes and artist. Artists are very involved with each of their works, they like them to go to good homes, to people that love their work. Developing a relationship with a gallery or an artist can open up the opportunities for invitations to showings or future exhibitions. Many galleries will bring a piece to your home prior to purchase so you can see how it would look in your space. It also helps the galleries to see your style and possibly think of other pieces not on show that they may know about.

 The first artwork I bought was an illustration, I saved for months!  It was $80 in 1990 and it’s still hanging in our home. I now know it was a print, it was framed beautifully and I still love it. It takes me back to a time when all I wanted was to be an illustrator. I have looked at the lines so many times, recently my daughter asked if it could be moved to her room. Art gives forever if it speaks to you.

My husband’s first piece was a tiger, a lino cut at a market. He was shocked that you could buy original art at a market – a whole new world opened up. We still have the lino cut and it still looks wonderful. It represents a beautiful piece but also a day of immense happiness and possibility. One of our children has dibbs on it for their forever home. (they are thinking ahead).

The addiction continues and so does our collection. Now have works that are 10 x the price and took many months/years of savings that bring us as much joy as that very first print and lino cut tiger. I am an artist and these works continue to inspire me. They were not bought for investment, they were bought simply for the love of the piece and are now part of the fabric that is our home.