Ross Laurie gets the thumbs up... again!

Ross Laurie, From Ochre Hut - Fowlers Gap IV, 2011, oil on board, 590 x 590 mm

Art critic John McDonald, in reviewing the exhibition 'Not the Way Home: 13 Artists Paint the Desert' at the S.H Ervin Gallery, has written:

"the standout performer is Ross Laurie, who has produced an impressive variety of images, from small charcoal sketches to densely worked studies in oil stick, to large oils on canvas.

In Laurie's work one sees the complete cycle from straightforward observation to transformation in the studio. His two large paintings, Ridge and Creek, Fowlers Gap I and II, are very far from being snapshots of the desert landscape. Laurie has taken huge liberties with the colour, using swaths of white-ish paint to reproduce the effect of bright sunlight. This is reminiscent of Ian Fairweather, who would often finish a painting with a final tracery of white. The other Fairweatheresque aspect is the creation of an internal rhythm that holds the composition together, even though each component seems to be bulging and sliding."

Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum, 16-17 June, 2012

View the full article here

View more images of the Fowlers Gap suite here on facebook

Some Ross Laurie dates to remember:

1 July, 2012 - Last day of 'Not the Way Home' exhibition at S.H. Ervin Gallery

1-5 August, 2012 - Melbourne Art Fair - we will be presenting a new suite of Ross Laurie works at our stand, A51, upstairs in the Exhibition Centre.

14 August - 8 September - Group show 'The Bigger Picture', at King Street Gallery

4- 29 September - Solo exhibition 'Paintings and Works on Paper 2012' at the Damien Minton Gallery

Ross Laurie in Not the Way Home

Ross Laurie is in the group exhibition NOT THE WAY HOME at the S.H. Ervin Gallery until 1st July. The show was forged through a two week residency in Fowlers Gap, an outback research station. Read the feature in last Sunday's Telegraph.

Click to enlarge

Carment, Laurie and Gardiner get the thumbs up from John McDonald in the Salon des Refuses

In last weekend's SMH Spectrum, John McDonald called this year's Archibald a "generally acknowledged [...] dud show". He at least has some kind words for Tom Carment, Ross Laurie and Peter Gardiner in his review of the Salon des Refuses, the "breakaway" exhibition curated from the unselected entrants in the Art Gallery of New South Wales' Wynne and Archibald prizes.

Tax laywer and poet Geoffrey Lehmann by Tom Carment

“If I had to choose a favourite portrait, I’d fall back on stalwart performer Tom Carment, who has given us a typically sensitive depiction of Geoffrey Lehmann…” – John McDonald, Spectrum, SMH, 28 April, 2012

Peter Gardiner, Swamp I (Burrumbeet), 2012

One of two “... original, confident works [...is] Peter Gardiner’s hypnotic Swamp I (Burrumbeet)” John McDonald, Spectrum review: Salon des Refuses, SMH, 28 April, 2012

Ross Laurie, Ridge and Creek - Fowlers Gap, 2011, oil on canvas, 1200 x 1500 mm

 

“The two most impressive Wynne rejects are Ross Laurie’s Ridge and Creek – Fowlers Gap and Gladdy Kemarre’s Anwekety (Bush Plum). One wonders what Laurie has to do to be selected for the Wynne, as he is arguably one of Australia’s most dynamic landscape painters, albeit in a semi-abstract idiom. Although it is no easy matter to identify the specific features if a landscape in Laurie’s work – let alone swaggies, jumbucks and other standard bush items – he conveys a powerful sense of the heat and light of the Australian environment – in this instance, the arid regions near Broken Hill. – John McDonald, Spectrum review: Salon des Refuses, SMH, 28 April, 2012

Considered prestigous in its own right, we heartilty congratulate Tom, Peter and Ross for being selected into the Salon des Refuses, at the S.H. Ervin Gallery until May 20.