Ross Laurie
New paintings and drawings
Exhibition dates: Wed 24 October to Sat 10 November, 2007
View the artworks
Print CV
The paintings of Ross Laurie continue the themes developed over the last few years at his art studio on the sheep and cattle property at Walcha, located on the New England Tableland, NSW.
Laurie’s studio is a meeting place for the modernist principles of abstraction with his inherent feeling for a ‘sense of place’ within the Australian landscape.
The influence of bleached, drought-stricken ridges, mountains and gullies once transformed onto canvas becomes shapes and forms either compressed or expanded. The visual language develops into its own unique calligraphy of intersecting vertical and horizontal brushstrokes. The dry bone muted colours of the landscape shift into a rich luscious palette of singing, intersecting tones.
A mid-career artist, Ross Laurie is represented in major corporate and state collections around Australia.
“I’ve been visiting Ross Laurie’s place for well over ten years.
His house is full of art and sits on top of a hill, which looks down into a valley with spectacular views of rolling bush.
The landscape is dynamic with lots of hidden surprises.
The country around Walcha is harsh and has big contrasts both in weather and geography; you have to work hard to make a living from it.
The same could be said of Ross’s paintings, he works hard at them and they have great contrast in form, colour and subject. The more you look the more you find.
Ross Laurie’s art is unique in that it gives us an insight into a special part of this magnificent country.
His paintings are rich with the smell, sound and touch of his place.”
Peter Sharp 2007
Born: Walcha NSW 1961
Study
1986Painting, Victorian College of the Arts, Prahan Campus,
Melbourne
1984-85Painting, printmaking and sculpture, Newcastle
Polytechnic, UK
1983-84Painting and drawing, Foundation Course, St Martins
School of Arts, London
1983Painting and Printmaking, Mitchell College, Bathurst
1982Visual Art, Sydney College of the Arts
Solo exhibitions
2007Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2006Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2005Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
2005Wrestles with Landscape, New England Regional
Art Museum
2002Damien Minton Gallery, Newcastle
1999Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1998Old School Gallery, Walcha
1997Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1996Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1995Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1994Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1993William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
1992New England Art Museum
1991Tamworth City Gallery
1991William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
1991Ben Grady Gallery, Canberra
1990Linden Gallery, Melbourne
1988Girgis and Klym Gallery, Melbourne
1981Tamworth City Gallery
1981Parmenter Gallery, Walcha
Selected group exhibitions
2006Salon des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2006Regional Encounters, Tamworth City Gallery
2006Walcha - City of Art, Gallery Karlovy Vary, Ostrov,
Czech Republic
2006Same Place Different Views, Defiance Gallery, Sydney
2005The Year in Art, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney
2005(Going) Out There, Ivan Dougherty Gallery,
COFA, UNSW
2005Country Energy Art Prize, Coffs Harbour Regional
Gallery and NSW Parliament House
2004England Picture, New England Regional Art Museum,
Armidale
2003Surface Memories, Tamworth City Gallery
2004Hazelhurst Work on Paper Award, Hazelhurst
Regional Gallery, Gymea
2003Country Energy Art Prize, New England Regional Art
Museum, Armidale
2003Walcha - City of Art, New Contemporaries Gallery,
Sydney
2000Melbourne Art Fair, Bryan Hooper Gallery, Sydney
1998Coventry Diary, Coventry Gallery, Sydney
1997Salon des Refuses, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1995Salon des Refuses, SH Ervin Gallery, Sydney
1991Syme Dodson Gallery, Sydney
1989Drawings, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
1988New Art Melbourne, Ivan Dougherty, Sydney
1988Gallery Artists, Girgis and Klym Gallery, Melbourne
1988Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition
1987Moet and Chandon Touring Exhibition
1982New England Artists, Tamworth City Gallery
Commissions
2004Sculpture, Walcha Central School, Walcha
2001Preschool entrance sculpture, Walcha Preschool Inc,
Walcha
1998Town entrance sculpture, Walcha Shire Council, Walcha
Prizes
1999Inaugural winner of the Norville Prize for Landscape
Painting, Murrurundi
Collections
Macquarie Bank Art Collection
Australian National Gallery, Canberra
State Bank Collection, Victoria
Maritime Museum, Sydney
NRMA Collection, Sydney
Artbank
Gaden Ridgeway
La Trobe University Collection, Melbourne
New England Regional Art Gallery
Benalla Regional Art Gallery
Tamworth City Gallery
Coventry Collection, Sydney
Laverty Collection, Sydney
Private Collections, Australia, New Zealand and England
Newcastle Region Art Gallery
Publications
Spectrum Review by John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 April 2006
‘Current Affairs’, John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 4 June 2005
New England Picture Catalogue, NERAM
Surfaces Memories Catalogue, Tamworth City Gallery
Walcha City of Art Catalogue, New contemporaries Gallery, Sydney
‘Past Master’, John McDonald, Sydney Morning Herald, 26 June 1996
‘Paintings that peer behind the shadows of reality’, Christopher Heathcote,
Age, 19 May 1993
New Melbourne Catalogue, 1988
Moet and Chandon Catalogue 1987 and 1988
