Oct 9 Dave Thomas - Oil PortraitureDave Thomas was born in the town of Pontypridd,
Wales in 1950.Studying fine art at English and
Welsh colleges from early 1970
he was soon being commissioned to paint portraits of
famous sporting
personalities for club, and boardroom hanging.
In the early eighties, Dave moved to Milan which saw a significant change in
his technique,
subject assessment and artistic development, and which lead to
his appointment as head of
the Art Department at the International School of
Milan, Italy. After a period in that position,
Dave secured both an agent, and
the interests of a well known Gallery and began to focus on the
promotion of
his own work.
After a short visit to Australia in 1986, he returned again in 1989,
establishing his own teaching
studio, and workshop facilities in NSW.Since July
2000, Dave has lived in the NSW Southern
Highlands town of Bowral where he
paints commissioned works from his studio.Aiming to be
regarded as one of
Australia's top portrait artists, Dave has entered work in the major portrait
competitions and exhibitions, becoming a finalist in both the Archibald Prize
and Doug Moran
National Portrait Prize. He is also fond of the challenge of
mural painting, especially 'Trompe L'oeil'
and has painted a number of these in
Villas in Northern Italy. He has painted a huge Barrier Reef
scene at the new
National Aquarium in Canberra, with others at Taronga Zoo, and Ocean World in
Sydney.
In addition to his numerous corporate portrait commissions, over the past
eight years, He has also
become increasingly involved in the area of Sporting
Memorabilia.
Nov 13 Angelica Erbsland - Mixed media - Still life
Angelica’s journey began as a very young child,
and is still a passionate journey.
She is German born, but grew up in
Australia. After studying for an associate diploma in Art
and Craft at TAFE in
Adelaide in 1983, she began teaching painting, drawing and ceramics at
TAFE in
Adelaide. As well as conducting private classes. Angelica established herself
mainly
as a portrait artist, but also had several solo and group shows in
Adelaide before moving to
Sydney in 1995. She has painted many prominent
people, including Dame Roma Mitchell,
politicians and jockeys, and famous race
horses. It was a portrait of Colin Hayes the horse trainer,
with his favourite
horse that won her the Packer’s award at the Archibald in 1993. That painting
is now hanging in Lindsay Park. Angelica likes to travel and paint in different
environments, and
sometimes she will simply be inspired by music or an emotion
that she wish to express.
Because her background is in portraiture and life
drawing, often the landscape impressions
will meld with figures and faces,
layering images to give meaning to a painting. Colour is very
important to
Angelica, she believes it influences our lives on many levels. She has studied
colour in many ways over the years and this allows her to work intuitively with
colour and the
concepts of yin and yang, which are echoed in the strong
relationship contrasts in her work.
She constantly explores watercolours,
pastels, oils, acrylics and mixed media, and enjoys them all,
exhibiting
regularly in Sydney as well as in Adelaide. Her work has been featured in the
Artist’s Palette magazine. She has won over 50 prizes in various art shows
since 1983, 21
of these were 1st prizes.
Angelica began teaching at the Castle hill Art Society in
1997, and likes to introduce various
media to her students. Angelica still
enjoys doing figurative work and drawing but also likes
to move toward
abstraction from time to time, and her travels have provided her with
inspiration for
landscape and other subjects. She lives and works in Sydney,
and also has a retreat with studio
at Hill End and finds the area inspirational
for painting as well as having an annual workshop there.
She regularly conducts
workshops and demonstrations in and around Sydney as well as
interstate and
overseas.
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