Walking around Little Blue Wren Gifts & Art gallery with artist Jane McCumstie you can\u2019t help but be caught up in how she talks you through her latest solo exhibition \u2013 The Awe and Wonder of the Ordinary.<\/p>\n
It is more than her passion for this project, more than just her love of art and more than her zest for life, it is her attention to detail and seeing the extraordinary in everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beauty is found in the little details of life, the ordinary things,\u201d Jane said. \u201cThe beautiful rock you pick up, the wind rustling in the trees, the music I\u2019m listening to, something I\u2019m reading \u2013 I have always have a trigger that inspires me.\u201d<\/p>\n
So if you haven\u2019t taken in Jane\u2019s exhibition yet it is now in its last week and you should head to Mount Gambier\u2019s newest art space and see how thoughts like that translate onto canvas, along with the brief but thoughtful explanations of each work provided by the artis herself.<\/p>\n
If you had to pigeonhole Jane\u2019s work in this Little Blue Wren exhibition, she would label it abstract mixed media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take an idea, extract it, push and pull it,\u201d Jane said. \u201cI get there in the end with some resistance \u2013 as I work I am always thinking \u2018where is this going?\u2019 I have the story in my head and it is a matter of then putting it into my work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane, a relative newcomer to the Limestone Coast, calling Millicent home, loves the Little Blue Wren Gifts & Art gallery space and was thrilled to have the opportunity to exhibit her work in the new space. \u201cIt\u2019s so filled with light,\u201d Jane said.<\/p>\n
And that light is showcasing her work, much of which is inspired by her new home in the Limestone Coast, but for Jane it all started at her childhood home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up on a property in the middle of New South Wales,\u201d she said. \u201cBig skies, red dirt and spending time on the back of a horse mustering.\u201d<\/p>\n
That explains her love of the outdoors and the role nature plays in her creative process and a family full of creative types points to why art became the way Jane was destined to express herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cMum was always making or creating and we were doing the same by her side,\u201d Jane said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t even get a TV, which was second hand, until I as nine or 10. There are a lot of people in my family that art artistic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane traces her first meaningful work in her 20s when she attended her first watercolour class. \u201cThat was kind of it \u2013 I was hooked and just kept going to classes,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd no matter what I did, I always end up floating back to watercolours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jane took every opportunity she could to learn and after plying her trade in watercolours for more than a decade, exhibiting that work.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I did feel like I had exhausted it \u2013 the flowers, the gardens \u2013 I wanted more,\u201d she said. \u201cIt would have been in my 30s and I had two paintings to put into an exhibition so I decided I wanted to do something else. It all changed for me when I saw this work The Fisherman\u2019s Net \u2013 it was extraordinary, you wanted to reach out and touch it and that\u2019s when I realised that\u2019s what I wanted to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Knowing that mixed media was in her future was one thing \u2013 achieving that to a high level was another. \u201cI began experimenting but realised I didn\u2019t have the technique.\u201d<\/p>\n
New South Wales artist Val Fitzpatrick was a huge influence and as she had her whole career, Jane knew learning at every opportunity was the key so from her home in the Blue Mountains, that\u2019s exactly what she did.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one could teach you to be artistic but they could teach you techniques, you had to find your own path.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Jane has found her own path. She has now been painting for more than three decades and considers the past decade to be when art truly became a full time pursuit.<\/p>\n
The foundation of that art practice is simple. \u201cEach painting should give you a feeling,\u201d Jane said. \u201cThe same way you look at a bookshelf and I know the feeling each book there gives me.\u201d<\/p>\n
So from the Blue Mountains to Canberra to a 26th floor apartment in Manilla in the Philippines, where she was living due to her husband\u2019s work, to now, Millicent, art is what has remained her constant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank God for my art,\u201d she said. \u201cArt is always my friend, especially when I am on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deciding Millicent as their forever home was influenced in no small part by how inspirational this region is for Jane and her art practice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find this area incredibly inspiring and ever changing,\u201d Jane said. \u201cThe Blue Lake \u2013 it changes every day, every time you see it \u2013 I love it here.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy husband is a musician \u2013 we both need space and a creative space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting to Millicent was not without its challenges as the couple, due to COVID, had to isolate almost at every turn, despite driving non-stop at one stage to get to Millicent to beat yet another border closure.<\/p>\n
But once here, exploring the region became a priority and Jane has found inspiration at every turn. \u201cI will never forget our first drive to Southend \u2013 that cliff face just struck me,\u201d Jane said, with one of the works on display in her current exhibition inspired by that first Southend visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI paint by feeling, I make a narrative in my head and I hold it in there until I have expressed it \u2013 it is why I sometimes paint in a series,\u201d Jane said. \u201cI love texture and movement and colour. It\u2019s peaceful here, it\u2019s not spoiled, its special.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got everything we want and need and for an artist it\u2019s incredible, it\u2019 really inspirational. Jane\u2019s exhibition is on show until Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Walking around Little Blue Wren Gifts & Art gallery with artist Jane McCumstie you can\u2019t help but be caught up in how she talks you through her latest solo exhibition \u2013 The Awe and Wonder of the Ordinary. It is more than her passion for this project, more than just her love of art and […]<\/p>\n