TONY PRIDDLE
Natural World

OPENING: THURSDAY, 3RD JULY FROM 6-8PM

EXHIBITION: 3-26 JULY 2008

TONY PRIDDLE
Natural World

"Sometimes drawings are a preliminary to painting, it helps clarify how a work will develop; sometimes they are an end in themselves
Charcoal and paper are very minimal and ancient media, and yet extremely sensitive..
Black and white drawings have a strength and immediacy; powdered carbon manipulated with fingers…..."

The exhibition features Priddle’s Higher Ground Series of emotive landscape works in both oil on canvas and charcoal on paper, that are loosely based on Mt. Kosciusko, as well as, a selection of his Redscape Series of oil paintings based on the expansive vistas off the Silver City Highway which runs from Broken Hill to Tibooburra. Also on view will be a selection of Tony’s figurative drawings and paintings, generally reflective of the current political climate or simply taking a humorous look at the Natural World in which we all find ourselves.

"This is often not a matter of putting more visual information into the work, but the reverse. The marks made, colours and tones used, are continually adjusted and edited to achieve a balanced minimum. The ‘viewers’ consciousness is left some work to do.
This it does from its stored memory of geography and landform, colour and shadow. In return for ‘contemplative looking‘, I hope the ‘viewer’ will be able to read the subject in a far more direct and visceral way than would be possible with say, a photographic enlargement of a similar subject.
The other intriguing aspect of this balance point is that the ‘ willing co-operation’ required of the viewer is, I suspect, exercising the same part of the brain the artist uses to paint it."

About the Artist

Tony Priddle was born in Taunton, Somerset, UK. Emigrating to South Australia with his family in 1965, Tony has resided in Sydney since 1966. After studying at the Somerset College of Art, UK, Priddle received a Diploma of Fine Art Painting from the National Art School, Sydney and also holds a Diploma Professional Art Studies from the City Art Institute, Sydney. Tony is also an arts-worker and workshop teacher, often working for marginalized sections of the community.

His prizes and awards include the Fairfield Art Prize 1991, the Liverpool Heritage Prize 1996 and 1997 and received commendations in the John Copes Prize 1999 and the Camden Art Prize 2004. He has consistently exhibited in group shows including The Fishers Ghost Award and the Willoughby Art prize with two solo shows, 'Eastside-Westside', Woollahra, 1995 and 'Pictures from the Western Front', Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, 1997. Most recently a finalist in the 2008 Gallipoli Art Prize with a figurative set of four paintings detailing a sailor’s being sent-off to war titled ‘Goodbye’.

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