A NEW exhibition at Solders Hill\u2019s Old Butcher\u2019s Shop Gallery is drawing visitors into little vignettes of the past.<\/p>\n
Visual artist Petra Rodgers is showcasing a collection of oil paintings called Silent Picture Show until Sunday 23 July.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all paintings based on vintage photographs that I collect,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a collector of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe photos range from the 19th century up until the 1980s, and they can be quite detailed, but I just take a snippet of the photos and reproduce them in paint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested in stories and recalling some of my own childhood and family memories, and I draw them out of other people\u2019s photographs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like the fact that the photos have so much history, and I\u2019m intrigued by what people are wearing, the furniture, and I wonder why they\u2019re doing certain things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not trying to dictate my story, I just want people to get something for themselves out of it. They might remember something from their own childhood or experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The content of some of the works includes a bird on a rock in 1970s America, and a couple of people sitting at a dinner table in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt reminded me of clothes that I used to wear in the 80s, because I grew up in that time,\u201d Rodgers said.<\/p>\n
Rodgers studied fine arts before moving to Ballarat in 2004 and having her own show in the Art Gallery of Ballarat in 2009.<\/p>\n
For more than a decade, she took a break from art, but in the last few years, she has been \u201creemerging\u201d on the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cPainting is my main thing,\u201d she said. \u201cI used to do more watercolours, but I\u2019ve moved on from that a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe exhibition is not just about photos, but that I\u2019m interested in the surfaces of painting, and what you can do with paint as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A NEW exhibition at Solders Hill\u2019s Old Butcher\u2019s Shop Gallery is drawing visitors into little vignettes of the past. Visual artist Petra Rodgers is showcasing a collection of oil paintings called Silent Picture Show until Sunday 23 July. \u201cThey\u2019re all paintings based on vintage photographs that I collect,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m a bit of a […]<\/p>\n