Returning artist draws on farmland

VISUAL artist and former Ballarat local Sue Quinlan Brain said the galleries she used to exhibit in the region probably don’t exist anymore.

Having lived in the city for more than two decades, from eight years old until her late 20s, this weekend will mark something of a creative homecoming for her, with the launch of her new show at Ross Creek Gallery.

Titled You’re only here once, Quinlan Brain said the exhibition draws on the iconography and landmarks of her south-west Victorian cattle farming property where she’s lived for more than 30 years.

“My husband and I are both at retirement age and so it hit me that I should appreciate all those little things about the place,” she said.

“It’s all farm-oriented day-to-day stuff, things that have always been there like the cattle, shearing, machinery sheds and silos, paddocks, fences, and gates, but there’s animals as well.”

A lifelong artist, Quinlan Brain previously established the Katsui creative business in Ballarat before focusing on farming and family life near the Glenelg River.

She studied art at the Ballarat School of Mines and Ballarat College of Advanced Education in the early 1980s, and picked up her creative practice again about five years ago.

Last December she held her first solo exhibition since returning to creative arts, at Willaura Modern Railway Gallery, with this weekend’s show to be her follow-up.

“It means a lot to me to have my own thing to do again rather than farmwork and family stuff and to show people these works,” she said.

“It’s a lot of pre-painting and sketching, going out and doing some plein air stuff. The final paintings can take hours to resolve and some can take weeks.”

You’re only here once launches tomorrow and will run until 18 August.

Ross Creek Gallery is open Fridays to Sundays from 11am to 4pm, or by appointment.