Escape into Dreamscapes & Landscapes

GALLERY on Sturt’s latest exhibition takes viewers into the creative worlds of printmakers Marie Mason and Anne Langdon.

The Dreamscapes & Landscapes show features the lino and reduction printed landscapes by Mason, while a mix of Langdon’s lino and screen prints, collages, drawings, and watercolours are on display.

Mason and Langdon are both members of the Goldfields Printmakers group, as artists from Smythes Creek and Smythesdale respectively.

“When I moved here from Melbourne, Anne let me use her press, which big enough to print A3, two afternoons a week. Gradually, we became firm friends,” Mason said.

“Anne does dreamscapes, usually with a human aspect, but they’re about the environment, the landscape, her love of birds, flowers and the sky.

“My prints are all based on places I’ve been, I’ve holidayed, or I’ve lived.”

The pair enjoy heading down the road to one another’s studios, to bounce visual ideas off each other while they’ve got a new print or artwork in development.

“Artists can talk art all day,” Mason said.

Gallery on Sturt director Leigh Tweedie said the exhibition’s recent opening night was a great success, and sales are steady.

“Framed artworks by Anne and Marie are on exhibit, and unframed prints from the same edition are also available,” she said.

“This was the first opening we’ve had since this time last year. Twelve months ago, on 20 March, we were about to open Pauline O’Shannessy-Dowling’s exhibition Intricate, when COVID restrictions changed all that.”

Mason said about 60 people attended the Dreamscapes & Landscapes opening evening, where she met fellow art-lovers, artists and collectors.

“It was very enjoyable, and very lovely for Ballarat. People were lined up at the door,” she laughed.

“Anne and I have sold lots of framed and unframed works already. When people are willing to buy our works, it’s wonderful and gives us confidence.

“We need to show our work and sell some of the work in order to keep the confidence in what we’re doing, and our view of the environments.”

Dreamscapes & Landscapes runs until Saturday, 10 April. Visit bit.ly/3s9peht for more information and close-up images of Mason and Langdon’s pieces.