From sketches to showcase in Smythes Creek

IT was while leading life drawing classes at the Art Gallery of Ballarat that Alison Parkinson’s appreciation for capturing three-dimensional form deepened.

Surveying the work of her students led the Mount Prospect-based artist to further hone her own drawing practice and to turn her hand to sculpture.

“Drawing has been my discipline and it’s something that has trained me to see the world,” Parkinson said.

Parkinson is among five local artists represented in the inaugural Ballarat Drawers exhibition opening this weekend at Ross Creek Gallery, Smythes Creek.

Officially launching with a 2pm event this Sunday 7 June, it will also feature work by Bren Luke, Kim Anderson, Peter Cougle and Georgina Gould-Hardwick.

“It’s exciting because we’ve never had exclusively a drawing exhibition before,” the gallery’s Ruby Pilven said.

Parkinson will have 10 of her works in the show, part of the gallery’s new series celebrating the depth of creative practice within the Ballarat area.

She aims for a wild energy to flow through each of her semi-abstracted drawings that revel in the organic forms of living things like flowers and vegetables.

“I’ve been working on this new body of work since the start of this year and it’s about looking at the fleeting moments of organic things,” Parkinson said.

“I’ve extrapolated a sense of all dimensions in trying to capture the moments that turn into the past, and the moments that pre-empt the future.”

Ballarat Drawers follows on from The Painters and The Printmakers, and will in turn be followed by The Potters, and The Sculptors later this year.

Pilven said the Ballarat series has been conceived as an evolving platform for the region’s arts talent to be seen, celebrated and supported.

Ballarat Drawers runs from Saturday 6 June to Sunday 28 June with the gallery open weekends and by appointment.