Cut and Formed on the Plains
“CUT AND FORMED ON THE PLAINS”
From the shire of the Golden Plains in country Victor
ia a large rural shire west of Geelong and south of Ballarat come two wonderful artists – printmaker Vida Pearson and sculptor Lucy McEachern. A chance meeting at the annual Birregurra Arts Festival a couple of years ago has seen the pair embark on a series of exhibitions in three different states for 2011. This travelling exhibition is titled “CUT AND FORMED ON THE PLAINS” and will be on show firstly at Yering Station in the beautiful Yarra Valley of Victoria, secondly at Roma on Bungil Gallery at Roma in Queensland before finally travelling to Purple Noon Gallery at Freemans Reach in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney
Both artists are born and bred country girls and have a great belief in country life and a commitment to exhibiting outside the metro area in a bid to give those that live outside the big cities access to high quality artworks.
THE ARTISTS
Vida Pearson lives on a 5 acre bush block at Haddon west of Ballarat where she and partner Fred Ross (a specialist fine furniture craftsman) have their studios. She has been a professional artist/printmaker for over 25 years and has a well-established reputation for her vibrant hand-coloured linocuts. Much of her subject matter comes from field trips throughout Australia in search of interesting native plants and birds – but her own backyard also provides plenty of material with many birds nesting and living on her property. Rosellas, kookaburras, honeyeaters, wrens and the ever-delightful white winged choughs are all there battling it out for their own territory.
LUCY MCEACHERN
Lucy McEachern has quickly established herself as a leading sculptor of birds. Her chosen medium for this is bronze. The simplified and elegant lines of her works make them very tactile and a pleasure to behold. When not sculpting, she helps run the family property at Wingeel west of Geelong. She is often inspired when doing stock work as she rides past plantations and grasslands and is able to observe birds in their natural habitat. Annual revegetation projects have helped to increase bird life on the farm quite noticeably. She is also lucky enough to live by a creek where there is an abundance of water birds at her front door to observe. Whet
her it is a finch that darts from post to post, a brolga that dances with its mate or a wedge tailed eagle that glides in the thermals high above there is a never ending supply of subject matter for her to work with.
Both artists have had many successes and accolades. Vida’s most recent prize being the Presidents’ Award from the Wildlife Artists Society of Australasia and Lucy’s selection in the prestigious “Birds in Art” exhibition at the Woodson Museum in Wisconsin USA for the second year in a row – an international art exhibition of which only 4 Australians were selected. Her sculpture was also chosen in 2010 to tour the US in for 12 months with other selected entrants.
Both artists feel it an absolute privilege to be able to combine their passion for art with living in the country.
