A LONG Journey Home
20 | good life, june -july 2007
Three commissioned paintings by Michael Berry
are proudly hanging in their new home in the
clubhouse of the multi-million dollar One 15
Marina at Sentosa Cove in Singapore. Michael
refers to them as his ?babies?.
He had been ruminating for some time about
the need to ?paint really big canvases? to more
thoroughly explore the expansive element of
his work, when the offer from a corporate art
consultant, which came about through his
website, was confirmed in February 07. He had
only forty days to complete three works ? a
diptych being 3x4 metres, and two other paintings
at 1.3x4.5 metres each.
Once the specially-made canvases had been
stretched and delivered to his home Michael
was immediately into it, completing the actual
painting of the works in nineteen very long and
inspired days and nights.
The varnishing ? always a risky enterprise even in
smaller works, especially for such a perfectionist
? and drying and edging, were successfully
finished in time for the pick-up by a freight
company for the overnight flight to Singapore
? to be installed before the official opening of the
marina on the weekend of April 14/15.
Michael always works from his home, and this
particular painting and varnishing process took
over the whole house, as he lived and breathed
every painterly decision and brushstroke ? each
nuance, shift of focus, vanishing point and lovingly
prepared application of vibrant colour.
While Michael cheerfully describes himself as
?a pain in the artist?, beneath his breezy and
humourous manner there is a dedicated and
insightful man who has an extremely sharp eye,
and consummate understanding of the visual art
world - and of his place in it.
The paintings have been ecstatically received
in Singapore and Michael?s Singapore agent is
currently planning more commissions for him,
and also an exhibition of his paintings in the near
future. His next one man exhibition in Melbourne
is August/September with Jenny Pihan Fine Art
at the Glen Eira City Council Gallery for which he
is presently planning, preparing and painting. He
will be showing about eighty paintings, drawings
and sculptures.
When confronted with the four really large and
very blank canvases back at the commencement
of his Singapore venture, Michael murmured
quietly ? ?Be careful what you wish for ? you just
might get it!? Asked can he fulfill the commission
in the limited time span available to him -
knowing he is not an artist who can just churn out
paintings but insists on a masterpiece each time
- he replied, ?I have no idea!?
But he did. And one senses it is just the
beginning of many more monumental and
spectacular works.
-By Stella Sharpe
B e c a r e f u l w h a t y o u
w i s h f o r ? . .
In 1975 a friend threw Kip Turner a lump of
clay and said: Here, make something! She
made a simple pinch pot. When she was
presented two months later with her finished
bowl, fired and glazed it was instant love and
the first step on her journey with ceramics.
Clay became her pastime, her passion & her refuge
from the rigours of teaching French and Japanese.
Her humanities background meant she knew
nothing about clay, glazes or kilns and she had
to learn as she progressed. She made numerous
mistakes, learning from each one, seeing each as
an opportunity and, every now and then, a piece
emerged from the transforming fire of the kiln
which made all the frustrations worthwhile.
Encouraged by her husband Gary (a sculptor in his
own right) she worked on elegant classical forms,
influenced by traditional Chinese and Japanese
pots. Together they created a strong range of
vibrant copper reds, celadons, chuns, and Kip?s
specialty, star-burst crystalline glazes.
When she approached her principal at Elwood
High wanting to teach ceramics, he issued her
a challenge to have her own exhibition and then
he?d consider her request. Six months later she
had a one woman show in the AMP building in
Melbourne and started teaching pottery in the
classroom. She shared several exhibitions with
other artists before her work took an entirely new
direction into printing treescapes on standing
panels of clay. These resulted in her being asked
to exhibit her work at the Meat Market and having
it photographed for Pottery In Australia.
After a long break, she has returned to her ceramic
passions in the small home studio shared with
Gary. She also enjoys great support from the
Dromana Potters Group who runs classes in the
Old Shire Hall there.
An Unorthodox Take on
That ever ebullient and energetic Red Hill
identity and artist MICHAEL LEEWORTHY
is all fired up and re-enamored with the
thrills of landscape painting, and the
potential breakthroughs that the second leg
(it?s really the first leg but typically he chosen
to do the second leg first and the first leg
second?no wonder he is just recovering
from knee arthroscopy) of his overseas
walking trip will galvanize.
Right now, despite the dicky knee he is in training
for his September sojourn of walking from Le Puy
in the south of France to the Pyrenees?a town
called Saint Jean de Pied Port, a single trip of 800
kilometers - it is actually the first leg of the famous
Pilgrim?s Walk also apparently tracing the historic
Saint James walk.
Michael completed the Spanish section (the
second leg first) a couple of years ago walking 26
km in 30 straight days?with the knee he is aiming
at the low stress pace of only 20 km a day. At
least that will allow him time to take the necessary
photographs which will provide the grist for the
artistic mill when he returns home to edit the best
shots into paintings.
?I?m in training, I have just walked Wilson?s
Promontory and have been walking the Peninsula
Her current work includes functional pieces such
as bowls and platters, painted in strong black and
white designs.
Most recently her fascination with gates and doors
as powerful symbols in all cultures has led to
the creation of strong archaic-looking structures.
She uses acid etching to achieve a weather-worn
surface finish.
Her knowledge of Japanese calligraphy is reflected
in some sculptures and she includes traditional
images from different religions. She plans a series
taking her through world
of using any animal as
reflects her abhorrence
Studio @ Flinders with
teapot exhibition at The
recently won the prize
the viewer smile. She
comment while making
deliver a sharp social
obvious, allowing her
in her non-functional
But it is predominantly
work where her
whimsical sense of
humour becomes
for the Most Popular
Piece at the annual
her pot entitled The
Paris Hilton Teabag.
dislike of self-promoting celebrities who provide
poor role models for young women.
For Kip Turner her return to pottery has been a
long journey with many sidetracks but her travels,
her teaching and her experiences have not only
enriched her life but are now finding exciting
expression in her new work and new directions.
Kip Turner won the Popular Choice Award at
the hugely successful Annual Teapot Exhibition
at the Studio @ Flinders in April.
the Ordinary
-it has awakened my love of landscape as a
painterly subject,? he says.
Not a man or an artist to be caught repeating
himself, he wears the tag ?Mr Diversity? almost as
a token of painting and walking against the flow
-he readily admits that he is ?fortunately? unable
to repeat himself as he is always seeking out an
unorthodox take on the ordinary.
?Yes I jump around all over the place as I have
a passion for self-discovery - my new paintings
are landscapish and very loosely brushed and
composed,? he says.
He just won the Oak Hill Gallery ?drought?
competition with a picture entitled ?Looking fro
Rainbows? depicting the back view of a lone
farmer haplessly rowing a clinker boat on a
sky-high scaffolding with a similarly lone
puddle of water soaking into the dirt at the bottom
of the scaffolding.
It is at once an enlighteningly silly and pathetic
visage which somehow has managed to touch
people?s, and the judges?, raw sensibilities to the
plight of this largely desert-centric country without
easy water - a lady was seen crying at this poetic
image & another laughing, Michael adds.
-Michael Berry
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