Local Artists UpFront and Personal
By Lynn Cran

Maleny is an axis of artistic excellence. In February two local artists, David Paulson and Peter Hudson, had their paintings selected from more than 600 entries, to be amongst the final 36 painters who had their work hung for the 2007 Archibald Portrait Prize. To have two finalists from a small regional town in Australia’s most prestigious portrait prize is astounding. In fact, Maleny has quite a substantial well of artistic talent to draw from, which is why The UpFront Club is now hosting opening nights for its exhibiting artists.

The Club hosted its first opening night in February for Alex Bridge’s exhibition “4up”, and the feedback was very positive. These nights are an opportunity not only to view the artwork, but hear the artists explain how they realised their work.

ANNETTE GLEESON: 29 March–24 April
The second opening night was held on 29 March for Annette Gleeson’s exhibition, “The Mystery of Things”. Annette’s work is the artistic manifestation of her ongoing process of exploring the boundaries of her belief system. To achieve visual resolution, Annette employs the methodologies of the Surrealists and the Symbolists, though she does not necessarily subscribe to their philosophies. Drawing on her subconscious, she then combines many different mediums, methods, texts and found objects to achieve her significant body of work, which is well worth studying while it is on display during April at the Club.

DONALD GREENFIELD: 25 April–29 May
Donald Greenfield’s idiosyncratic pieces are his response to life and music. His whimsical chocolate-wrapper collages and his deceptively simple pen-and-ink drawings are desgned to make people laugh. These deftly applied strokes of a pen can be viewed as cartoons or as meditations in line. Donald has enjoyed a distinguished career since the 1970s, with his quirky drawings appearing in publications such as Rolling Stone, Nation Review, The Bulletin, Playboy and many others. In 1989 Donald toured with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra as their ‘cartoonist in residence’, and in 1990 he collaborated with the Lyric Opera of Queensland.
Meet Donald at his opening night on 26 April.

MARIANNE OSBORNE: 29 May–26 June
After a long and diverse artistic career that has included more than 20 solo exhibitions, tutoring adult art education classes and being the law courts portrait artist for Channel 10 News, Marianne Osborne has ‘retired’ to Maleny. Originally from England, Marianne graduated from art school at 22 and has been painting for 40 years.

She uses a precise method that involves sketching ideas, enlarging the sketches and enhancing them with coloured pastels, then painting on canvas with oil paints and sometimes silver and gold leaf. This technique is applied to both of the subjects Marianne is intrigued by – one being figurative and the other textured abstraction.

The combination of talent and her considered approach has resulted in an exhibition of wonderfully intriguing paintings.
Marianne’s exhibition runs from 29 May to 26 June.
Opening night is 31 May from 6.30pm.

[From "Maple Street Co-op News", Apr/May 2007; published by The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny, Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]