It’s all about time for Gayle

WHEN you hear about Gayle Newcombe’s childhood, the direction her art practice has taken is no surprise.

“I have had the love of drawing ever since I can remember,” Gayle said. “I can remember mum drawing horses for us when we were very young.

“I think the interest in drawing might have come from that part of my life being with mum and impressed with something that can be put on paper and look real.”

And there was also a deeper reason, Gayle was drawn to art.

“My lack of understanding of numbers and letters as a child definitely had an impact and I struggled in most classes except art,” she said. “Art was a place to get lost and had no real expectation from the teacher and peers. I didn’t feel dumb or look dumb in an art class. So maybe the relief it gave me was where the love began.”

From developing that passion, Gayle has then immersed herself in developing her craft – the secret to her success encapsulated in one word – time.

“it’s time in the studio,” she said. “It’s time in nature. It’s time looking and seeing shapes and values in objects. Not just looking, you have to see things. The very subtle changes in how light falls and changes values from dark to light.

“Then you have to spend time replicating what you are observing.”

Gayle has also drawn learning and inspiration from other artists.

“Finding an artist that I admire and wanted to be at the same level was a way I improved over time,” she said. “Looking at why their art stood out from others, what they did, how they used light and colours to emulate a subject. How they used light and value to make you look at a particular area to have that emphasised. How did they do that?

“This is how I have improved over time. It takes a long time, to hone in on certain things that make a panting work.”

And for Gayle, friend and mentor, renowned wildlife artist Steve Morvell is top of that list as influencing her artistic career, starting with a five day apprenticeship.

“He was someone I admired and respected his work, his ethics, his knowledge and was someone I wanted to learn from,” she said. “This was a way I saw, to improve and develop my art. That was in 2017, a while ago now and I still continue to learn and he has become a friend.

“When I walked into his studio I immediately fell in love with how he portrayed his animals using pastels. I had already begun using pastel but had not seen it used this way. His use of colour, light and shadow really does take your breath away.

“This was one of the best decisions I made in my career. I learnt things that were missing in my art – some rules, compositions, tonal values, edges and design and what makes a painting a successful one.

Of course, when push comes to shove, the development of her art has been mostly due to her time and effort to ensure her skills develop and evolve.

“For me to develop I had to put in the hours,” Gayle said. “I don’t think I’m gifted or a natural drawer, some days that’s a struggle and I’m using my eraser more than I’m using a pencil but that’s ok. None of the ‘mistakes’ are a waste of time, it’s all learning.”

A cursory glance at Gayle’s catalogue of works shows that she has clearly embraced pastels as her medium of choice.

“It’s immediate, no mixing, no palette, no brushes to clean, no smells in the studio just pick up a colour and go but that’s not the most important reason why I love them,” she said. “It’s the feel of them in my fingers, you feel very connected to them. It’s like the colour is coming straight from your fingers, like magic.

“The colour is literally coming out of me. How cool is that! When you hold a pastel stick and rub it over paper the colour appears. You wipe across the paper and you have the most beautiful vibrant paint fall across the page. Even using pastel pencils, which I use a lot, still feels very connected to my hand.

“Then it just doesn’t stop there, the colours fall off your fingers and then you can smoosh it, push it around, blend it so its soft or leave the pastel texture visible with the paper tooth, what’s not to love. They are exciting to use and anyone can learn.”

Not to say she hasn’t and won’t create in other mediums.

At school she worked with oils, she has dabbled in charcoal, experimented with scratchboard and coloured pencils and has even tried her hand with watercolours.

“When I tried them (watercolours) years ago I didn’t feel I understood how they worked,” Gayle said. “It was out of my comfort zone and it made me put them away. Trying them now after years of playing with all sorts of other mediums and understanding the elements of putting together a piece of art, I now feel more relaxed and find watercolour amazing to use and will do more.

“Now I realise out of the comfort zone is where the magic happens. We tend to stop doing things we find uncomfortable and out of control but if we push a little we can learn a lot.”

She also has a desire to try clay sculpting and she is stepping into the digital art world but, of course, there is not enough time to work across all the mediums and genres on offer.

Most recently, a last minute call up to exhibit at the Naracoorte Regional Gallery saw her devoting all her time to planning this exhibition, which is on show until Sunday, February 22.

“I’m continually creating so I’ve always got enough work to display,” Gayle said. “. I knew I had enough work to fill a room so that was ok, although, of course, I was still framing the last one a week before.”

The title for this exhibition is ‘Nature in my h’ART’ and came about to incorporate Gayle’s love of nature and her love of art.

“I’d love to have people walk into the room and see our amazing array of animals and birds we have on the earth,” she said. “To see the beauty in each one. To maybe have in the back of our minds, how can we work together, to live side by side because of the magic they bring to us.

“I’d Iike people to look at a particular painting and have it bring up their own experiences with nature. Visitors will find my true love on the walls and hopefully see a life in each one.

“I’d like visitors to feel, if they took the bird from the page and threw it in the air, it would fly away. If they took the painted dog from the wall it would run away. They would move like they do in the wild.”

Every one of Gayle’s works are based in and influenced by her own experiences.

“They all begin from my camera,” she said. “I enjoy seeing and learning from nature, the answers are all there, regarding art elements. Because my art is taken from my own photography they are one of a kind. No other artist can replicate what I have. By using my own photography, it has more meaning to me. This is very important part of my art journey.”

And the Naracoorte Gallery show is a representation of her 2024 visit to Zimbabwe.

For Gayle, this current exhibition is somewhat of a full circle, given her inaugural solo exhibition was at the same venue in 2019.

She has been a strong supporter of a variety of local art competitions and also lent her skills to a book ‘The Gathering of the Koalas at Meredith’ in 2019 – a fundraising project to help save koalas, which was stymied somewhat by COVID but is still available.

Gayle is also a member of both the Australian and Victorian Pastel Societies and in that space she has won a number of accolades including first place in the Australian Pastel Society in the wildlife section in 2023, with plenty of critical acclaim at a number of Naracoorte competitions as well as back-to-back victories in the past two years of the Casterton Kelpie Art Show.

“I believe I’m still learning and improving, which I find exciting, and to be honest it’s the way it should be. If you think you know everything, it’s time to give up.”