Christine Gibbs - 'North & South'

Wednesday 11 - Sunday 29 September 2013

Click here for artwork by Christine Gibbs

In North and South, Christine Gibbs explores the themes of fragility and vulnerability and the sense of loneliness and fear, both real and imaginary, that can arise from being in a beautiful and isolated environment.

Interwoven in the Tasmanian paintings is an emphasis on tragic events in the island’s history, including the extinction of the unique Thylacine or Tasmanian Tiger and the disappearance of two young women from a remote beach on the east coast. These events evoke a sentiment of the fragility of life.

The juxtaposition of beauty with the ever present fear and danger of the unknown - the isolated beach, the creatures lurking beneath the wetlands, the sinister stranger, what is hidden, what is out there?

Gibbs' emotional response to the landscape is stimulated by colour and light. In these paintings of geographically distant places, the colour palette includes the cool blues and grey greens of Tasmania’s Central Highlands; the translucent emerald of Willie Creek, near Broome; the warm ochres of the desert and salt bush country south of Darwin and the vivid blue of the sky above Butterfly Gorge.

Texture and form, both structured and free flowing were created by building layer upon layer of acrylic paint combined with collage, ink and varnish on canvas, linen and wood.