Mawson Gallery presents sumptuous “nature” paintings from Rick Godfrey, the artist who gave you album cover art for such classic bands as AC/DC, the Easybeats and 
Ol ’55.

The exhibition also features ceramics by philosopher-musician-artist Sarah Rice featuring abstracted, metaphorical mandolins and the human face.

While Rick is relatively “new” to art on canvas, his 30-odd years as a designer/illustrator brought us scores of “popular art” works, from the album covers mentioned above to the interior wall illustrations  of the first Qantas jumbo jets in the 1970s.

But it was during a holiday trip to the magnificent Kimberley region in WA two years ago that inspired Rick’s “fine art” muse. 

“I was walking through the Windjana Gorge and came across a pile of debris left by the last flood. The synergy of the arrangement of twigs, leaves, bark and stones was a work of art in it’s own right,” he says. 

“I realised that nature provided a treasure house of diversity, shapes and colours – and I have not stopped painting since then.” 

Rick’s vibrant paintings are partly landscape and partly “magnifying glass close-ups” of nature’s elements – all on the same canvas.

“I have a deep love and concern for the environment and I aim to capture that passion in my paintings.” 

Born in Sydney and reared in Brisbane, Rick studied with renowned Sydney designer, the late Phyllis Shillitoe and went on to study art in what now is the Southern Cross University at Lismore in the early 1980’s. He settled in Canberra in 1986.
 
Sarah Rice, is a graduate of the School of Art, ANU. Her works draw on experience gained from working in art theory and from her doctoral thesis in philosophy. 

Her “Carrying Over” series of platters presents images formed from a composite of musical instruments loosely based on the mandolin and the human face. 

The works are made from white earthenware clay with drawn monoprints and painted earthenware glazes.

“The image of the mandolin has been carried over from my own personal experience as I play and teach a number of Early Music instruments, in particular, the recorder and mandolin,” she says.

“For many years, these forms have arisen in my drawings and paintings, and now appear in my ceramics. 

“I use the mandolin as a symbol for how meaning is conveyed aurally, as a form of communication between one person and another; a form, in other words, of ‘speaking’ to the face of the Other.

“This series of platters explores my interest in the operation of knowledge, particularly the idea of metaphor. That is, the platter, which by definition ‘carries’ from one to another, represents how knowledge functions through the operation of metaphor as the ‘carrying over in thought’. 

“Following ceramicist Stephen Dixon, I too believe that ‘the importance of ceramics historically has been as a carrier of meanings across cultures and across time’. The images used in these platters are similarly carried over from one platter to another.” 

The exhibition begins at MAWSON GALLERY, 63 Wilkins Street, Mawson on 17 May and runs to 11 June.  The official opening will be at 5.30pm, Saturday 20 May. Gallery opening hours are 10.30am – 5.30pm Wednesday to Sunday or by appointment anytime.  Phone 6161 2177,  mobile 0438 473 902.

High resolution photographs are available at www.mawsongallery.com.au/hi-res.html

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