6 - 24 May 2004
about the exhibition
Wildlife has been a major inspiration to Graeme Townsend for two decades, and his paintings reflect his love for the natural world and the visual treasures he finds there. Many of the works have a distinctly tropical atmosphere, with jewel-like birds and other rainforest creatures set against rich, dark backdrops. In others, a multitude of birds, hares and horses inhabit a landscape of possibilities, each painting part of a bigger story, like illustrations accompanying a rare book of fables. The fine detail is mesmerising; a pigeon’s wing feather, a water droplet on a leaf, a distant cloud. We are immediately drawn in by the pristine surfaces of the paintings, then compelled to weave the fragments of information into stories for ourselves.
Graeme Townsend was born in Sydney, and studied at both the Julian Ashton School and Alexander Mackie College. He travelled widely throughout the 1980’s, including painting and photographic expeditions to Borneo, Africa, Asia and outback Australia. In 1991, he was a lecturer in acrylic painting at the Julian Ashton school, and has had many solo exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth as well as the USA, Japan and Hong Kong. His work has been hung in the Wynne and Sulman prize exhibitions and shown at the Tokyo Art Fair and Melbourne Art Fair. Graeme will again exhibit at the 2004 Melbourne Art Fair with Beaver Galleries. He is represented in public and private collections in Australia, USA, Canada and Europe. This is Graeme’s first solo exhibition with Beaver Galleries.
