MALCOLM GARTSIDE

LANDSCAPES OF WORRY & FATIGUE

Exhibition: 12 March – 2 April

Having spent the last few years and two shows (at Brightspace) poking gentle fun at human foibles and pretentions by painting houses in and around the East St Kilda and Caulfield areas Malcolm Gartside has now switched his gaze to the countryside.  His exploration of the landscapes to the west of Geelong has produced haunting but beautiful monochrome watercolor paintings of the area.  The images are populated with trees carrying the damage of the years and rock piles accumulated in the seemingly endless and futile endeavor of clearing the ground for agriculture. These paintings also have a visceral sense of deep space, full of a kind of longing, and this imparts a slightly surreal or other worldly quality to the otherwise ordinary things depicted.  “The strangeness of the world becomes undeniable as soon you stop and take notice what it is really like.” Malcolm Gartside.

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