A response at the Old Butchers Shop

SHOWING now at The Old Butchers Shop Gallery in Soldiers Hill, Respond is a joint exhibition by established artists Peter Tankey and Nerrida Parfitt.

It explores the creative couple’s shared and personal responses to moving to Ballarat from Bacchus Marsh about 18 months ago.

There are about 49 original works on show. Parfitt said most are recent, but there are a few older pieces too.

“We are both oil painters. We just love the medium of oil on canvas. Peter actually stretches most of the canvasses we use and he is also a framer,” she said.

As new residents to the regional city, both artists relate how they found fresh inspiration in Ballarat’s architecture, changing light, and surrounding landscape.

Parfitt and Tankey studied visual arts together in the mid-1990s and Respond marks a continuation of their long-standing creative dialogue with many of the works the result of successive car tours to appreciate the local vistas.

“We live and breathe art,” Parfitt said.

In this new joint show, their shared history and connection to place are reflected here in two distinct but complementary bodies of work.

Parfitt’s works are influenced by her long-term interest in surrealism and by artists like Rick Amor, Jeffrey Smart and Edward Hopper.

She aims to create stillness and solitude and emotionally charged landscapes that sit within the Australian Gothic tradition.

Tankey’s work reflects his interest in social realism and the built environment. He lists his influences as artists like Smart, Noel Counihan, Sali Herman, and Hopper.

Parfitt said she and Tankey are quite often to be found on-site in the gallery during the exhibition, and are more than happy to share insights into their creative processes.

“It’s been a really good way to connect with other art lovers and the local community,” she said.

The exhibition continues through to the end of August, with the gallery open from 12pm to 4pm on weekends.