Following 15 years as Director of a Double Bay Gallery, Queenscliff’s Lynn Westacott saw the light and took the plunge, leaving the eastern suburbs behind to ensconce herself fully in the certifiably greener and impeccably verdant Northern Beaches pastures, setting up her own art platform, Artelan.
For the fluent French Frogmouth connoisseurs – most of you, naturellement – it’s no surprise élan is the Francophile locution to describe energy, style, enthusiasm, a vigour of spirit which is precisely what Lynn’s Artelan is dedicated to showcasing in the arts across all its forms.
“Artelan is a unique online gallery supporting artists and art lovers alike,” Lynn explains. “We pride ourselves on personalising the art experience and work with an exciting group of artists both emerging and established.” While the gallery is primarily an online platform, from 9-21 August Lynn’s Artelan will be presenting “Smoke Screen” at Manly’s Gallery 109.
The centrepiece will be Angeline Goh and her ‘Smoke Screen’ works of art that not only look incredible but are also imbued with the David Copperfield magic touch of transforming a balcony’s intimidatingly unattractive air conditioner unit into an aesthetically uplifting, benchtop-finished, bespoke piece of furniture.
“I have always tried to find art that can not only be beautiful but useful too,” says Lynn. “Having the privilege to represent Angeline, a popular artist who works with wood, we’ve developed the Smoke Screen, able to create something that looks superb, but also serves as an innovative design solution, transforming a balcony from an industrial manufacturer’s wasteland into an elegant and functional space.”
Originally from Malaysia, Angeline’s parents never saw art as a career path. When every balcony on the Peninsula (and the Earth!) sparkles with its own Smoke Screen of elegant deception, they’ll surely be won over to the arts as the most fruitful of career paths. The “Smoke Screen” is sealed for outdoor use and panelled to allow the unit to breathe. Have a particular colour scheme in mind? Angeline will paint and make your piece exactly to your requirements.
Also featuring in the exhibition, Mike Barr and Kerrie Leishman. Mike started painting Sputniks when he was 2! Evolving into a more impressionist style ever since. “My aim is for viewers to feel what I have painted, not just see it,” Mike explains. Never has an artist’s work been so palpable since Mike’s passion has become capturing rainy-day cityscapes, something we’re now intimately familiar with thanks to La Niña.
Mike’s paintings of the effects of rain in the city have sold all over Australia and the world. “There is something about the rainy city that connects with us,” Mike posits. “Sometimes it’s a shared experience of being out in the rain and often just the love of the drama and mystery that the rain creates.”
Kerrie’s art focuses on the dramatically changing landscape. “I anticipate the moment of flow, when the energy, magic and surprises take place,” Kerrie explains. “I am always striving to capture movement and the dynamics of the natural world where the earth and sky merge, a glimpse of light, a moment in time, where the light creates an always changing ephemeral landscape, often frenetically realised.”
The Smoke Screen exhibition also features sculptures by Sally Hook, Sallie Portnoy and Vaughan Robinson.
Visit ‘Smoke Screen’ at Gallery 109, Manly, August 9 – 21. Follow @artelansydney on socials, and head to artelan.com.au for more amazing art.