The longer I spend on the Coast, the more I am impressed with the team at Devonport Regional Gallery. Their philosophy, branding (that yellow!) exhibition and educational programs are all equal to any I have seen and I am so proud to have them as my local regional gallery . This year’s TIDAL award and finalist exhibition is a case it point. The award attracted over 250 entries and the quality of the finalist exhibition, which is still running in the gallery, is fantastic. I was so impressed by all the finalist including those highly recommended, Liam James and Troy Ruffels, as well as the winner, Joel Crosswell for his work Galaxias. If you haven’t seen it yet, take the time to do so before it closes on the 1st of February, 2015.
I have attempted to be involved in everything I can that the gallery is doing. Attending openings being my main occupation but at the end of last year I attended the ‘Photosmart’ workshop on smart phone photography with my Mum which was great fun.
This year has started with a full line up thanks to the TIDAL Festival which is currently happening. I have already participated in two of the TIDAL Festival’s workshops in the first two days, (I would love to attend them all but I am not sure I will quite manage that).
So far I have participated in the ‘Coloured Waters’ watercolour workshop at the Sound Shell, The Bluff, with local artist Sandy Michell. There we spent two hours in beautiful sunshine playing with water and pigment as Sandy encouraged us to let the water paint the image rather than restricting the pigment with the stroke of our brush.
Last night I was one of the 20 who attended the ‘Get Blogging’ workshop with Hilary Burden and enjoyed the group process, the opportunity to focus my attention on how I can improve my own blog and hearing from someone who has been blogging successfully for many years.
Tonight – its the ‘Forum: Coastal Conversations’, and I am really looking forward to hearing more about our local marine environment, of which I know very little despite thoroughly enjoying it, and how this may influence my own artistic practice.
So you can see I am thoroughly enjoying my local art scene – thankyou Devonport Regional Gallery.
