Emerging artist returns to brewery

ARTIST Jessie Bleakley is revisiting the Rood Henry Art Space at Palling Bros Brewery over the Easter weekend.

Quietude was the emerging artist’s first solo exhibition, held at the gallery earlier this year, and not the show is returning with several new works.

Bleakley said some of these recent creations were inspired by the building itself.

“I actually started them while I was sitting in the front window of the building,” she said. “I was observing the combination of the interior of the building and the outlook out of that window.

“The wrought iron across the front of the building, which is one of the original features, is something that I then abstracted and used to create five new mixed media pieces.

“They’re actually quite site-specific to the space and now they’ll be able to be seen back in the space where they were begun.”

Bleakley is a sculptor and mixed media artist crafting lush, colourful artworks.

“My pieces are heavily detailed and have lots of textural layers,” she said. “They play with lots of levels of detail for people to find and I think that that means that everybody sees different things.

“It’s almost like a little bit of hide-and-seek.”

She said it was interesting to see how it they were interpreted in her January show.

“It was a really great experience to have the local community come through,” she said.

“To have feedback on my work and to hear the pieces were resonating with people in the way that I had anticipated, and also in ways that I hadn’t when I was making them.

“But that’s the beauty of art, that everybody takes something different away.”

Quietude is back at Rood Henry’s Art Space 11am to 4pm, Friday, 7 April to Sunday, 9 April at 166 High Street, Heathcote.