Wetlands host RIVERSONG exhibition in August

 Textile artist Jan Clark uses a variety of techniques and mediums to express her spiritual connection to nature in a new exhibition at the Wetlands at Shortland in August.

 The vibrant habitat of the Wetlands will form the ideal backdrop for experiencing Clark’s diverse work. Her RIVERSONG works evoke the extraordinary beauty of tiny details observed during her frequent forays into the natural world.

 “Nature, and the habitats that surround me, provide deep spiritual nourishment,” the artist states. “Painting this world with textiles and mixed media gives me great pleasure. The desire to bring people’s attention to aspects of the natural world, which are often unnoticed, motivates me to create.”

 Clark has lived alongside the Rocky River in the New England Tablelands region in northern NSW. She has concentrated her work in the past two years to documenting the seasons, the plants, and the creatures of this riparian landscape. It has taken the artist on a journey of rhythm and flux.

 “No two seasons are the same”, Clark said. “The months come and go but the patterns of weather and life offer infinite variations on a theme.”

 The body of work in the RIVERSONG: Four Seasons of the Rocky Riverexhibition begins using scientific methods. Its twelve panels express, through colour and texture, the feelings and moods, sounds, heat and cold of this length of the Rocky River.

 The artist’s images of flora and fauna have been developed in a range of styles from scientific illustration to painterly marks on textiles. The surfaces of the textiles are then layered up with imagery and translucent fabrics to convey the essence of the natural world.

 “My textiles are full of insects and plants that are familiar to us,” she explains. “I hope to suggest to people that the mundane world around us, the familiar, the everyday, is also the bearer of the divine, the other, the spiritual nature of life.”

 Clark uses a range of techniques and media to convey the tangled abundance of forest floors and river banks. They include printing, painting, drawing with water soluble media, fabric collage, dry felting, dyeing and free motion machine sewing.

 RIVERSONG: Four Seasons of the Rocky River will be on display at The Wetlands at Shortland from 1 – 31 August 2019.

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