Adorned with carvings of long-necked birds and twisted foliage, this wooden rack was customised by Frances Mary White (1882-1848 – known as Mary), the eldest daughter of Margaret and Francis White of Saumarez Homestead, Armidale. Mary was a skilled chip work carver in the Arts and Crafts style, having learned the art at Ascham boarding […]
Marian Ellis Rowan (1848-1922) was a prolific Australian artist who painted flora and fauna. Born into a well-connected family, her husband encouraged her painting. Although she was not professionally trained, she produced artistic, botanically accurate work by using watercolour techniques with opaque paints, often without any pre-sketching. Ellis exhibited extensively Australia-wide and overseas, including North […]
The Arts and Crafts movement, spanning from 1880 to 1920, saw many women broaden their creative repertoire from traditional home and sewing-based crafts to woodcarving, ceramics, and painting. As women became more visible, country shows offered a way to exhibit, be noted and awarded for their work. One unusual craft done by women, seemingly only […]
At one stage, those gathering in the grand drawing room at Saumarez Homestead in Armidale would enter to the sound of music. Alternating between a gramophone, piano, and radio, music would pleasantly fill the space and resonate throughout the home. However, one of the more curious music-makers was this exquisite music box. It was likely […]
The rhythmic tap of heels on lino floors, the soft beeps of monitors, and the murmur of hushed voices – the Glen Innes hospital has been a place of care for more than 130 years. First established in 1887 after petitioning from the local community, the hospital has continued to grow from its humble beginnings […]
Today in 2024, the Australian Republic movement is alive and well, and even though our coins still show the Monarch, you would have to visit a state institution such as Parliament House to see a full portrait of the King. However, this was not always the case. Australian loyalty to the British Monarchy was traditionally […]
Joe Frost (1974-) painted this work for the exhibition View of Maitland from the riverbank (with apologies to Jan Vermeer and View of Delft), shown at Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) in 2006. Alongside eleven other commissioned artists, Frost painted a view of Maitland on a canvas the same size as that used by the […]
A stopped clock may be right twice a day, but can the same be said for the tabloid media? This altered cuckoo clock was exhibited alongside many other ticking timepieces as part of Fiona Hall’s installation Wrong Way Time for the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015. The Venice Biennale is an international display of contemporary […]
Fire and flood, the diametric poles of natural disaster, are recurring features of the Australian landscape. In this panoramic print, Tim Maguire suggests their all-encompassing and immersive effects, in which the world we know is consumed by elemental forces. The work was created for Maitland, a city which has been defined by dramatic floods […]
The bright, happy colours of the fanned paper sculptures in Li Hongbo’s work Gun No. 1 (2016) would not be out of place at a seven-year-old’s birthday party. But appearances are deceiving. The underlying structures of these ephemeral decorations are solid paper cutouts in the shape of bullets, hand-held pistols, and shoulder-mounted semi-automatic weapons. The rainbow […]
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