There and Here – Christine Webb

6th – 18th March, 2012

Opening by Graham Bond:
Thursday 8th March, 6.30 – 8.30pm

Having shown internationally, confident draftsman-ship, composition and colour mark Christine Webb’s outstanding still-life paintings in her debut Sydney exhibition.

Webb explores the conventions of Still-life with sensitive control of tonal value relationships, spatial depth and synthesis of the form. Italian jugs and garden roses calmly claim centre stage of the household table, pretty majolica pitchers contrasted with the fragility of life echoed by a petal floating in a water bowl. Subtle psychological shifts of relocating the family, holiday joy, and a sense of security are the underlying narratives of the works.

Shifting viewpoints counter pictorial flatness with the jaunty colours of a brief return to Australia early 2011, which later give way to serene tones reflecting the sadness of leaving her beloved home in Italy later that year. More recent works see colours gradually returning, all be it restrained, as native flora takes over and Italian ceramics are replaced with colourful range of Chinese ginger pots, lidded jars, Japanese bowls and a Turkish teapot. Multicultural Australia is embraced within an obsessively secure environment. Window bars throw their shadows over everything.

Now Sydney based, Christine Webb has recently returned having spent the last 11 years living in Tuscany, Italy. The exhibition ‘There and Here’ includes 6 paintings executed in her home in Italy, another 6 from her studio in Sorrento, on the Mornington Peninsular and the remainder at her studio in Glebe.