A sense of place from crafted paints

THE abstract impressions of place will form the thematic basis behind the Old Butcher Shop Gallery’s upcoming show to be held next month.

Throughout most of August, the neighborhoods and rural landscapes of Ballarat, England, and France will adorn the venue’s walls as part of visual artist Alan Leishman’s Near and Far exhibition.

An extensive traveller, Leishman said the show is about capturing the memory of locations.

“I can find a good landscape, a good painting, in any place I’ve ever been to,” he said.

“I don’t work from photographs. If you have to draw something, you have to actually understand something about it. I’m wired to come to my own analysis of what it is I’m looking at.

“There’s one painting of Holmes Street in Ballarat, which is where I walk pretty frequently. There’s another from the Titanic bandstand and another at Lal Lal Falls.”

Leishman created his works by first making sketches which he refers to as “my camera,” otherwise relying on visual memory.

Originally from England, Leishman has lived in Australia since the 1980s and has been based in Ballarat for almost a decade.

About 50 framed and 20 unframed works will be on display, with Leishman creating his pieces using his own crafted ochres, or clay pigments using a mortar and pestle.

He said the practice gives each piece an unconventional character.

“I was always interested in ochres,” he said. “It makes me want to paint in an abstract way. I try to be respectful of each motif but it puts my personal stamp on things.

“There were a lot of gravel pits in my hometown. I started collecting them and then I came out to Australia.

“Even in France, some of the main sources for Europe were from mines in the south of France.”

Near and Far: A Celebration of Place will be on display from Saturday 5 August until Sunday 27 August.