Bilpin's BigCi will open its doors on Sunday, December 13, for another open day, featuring works from its current artists in residence.
The event will run from 11am to 4pm and will feature presentations from Catriona Pollard, Richard Wu, Gary Shinfield, Brenton Schwab and Alexandra Frank.
Hailing from Sydney, Pollard will speak about her unique style of sculpture, which melds collected plant material with traditional basketry techniques.
She applies an intuitive minimal aesthetic, "transforming this organic media into art works, investigating the battle humans have between controlling nature and seeing themselves in harmony with it".
"Through this reinterpretation of nature, her work offers up the concept that we should actively see nature as part of us rather than simply an object that has no meaning or spirit," says The BigCi's artistic director Rae Bolotin.
Also from Sydney, Wu is a Chinese ink brush artist who views his painting as a practice of self-cultivation towards Dao, the return to elemental and authentic.
"His painting project features the 'trilogy of Dao', beginning with seeking," says Rae. "This is followed by seeing. The trilogy ends in the image of knowing.
"Richard will reveal a surprise to this image on the open day and will show that intricacies and complexities of nature coexist with, and are indeed manifestations of, the waterfall."
Blue Mountains-based Shinfield creates works on paper. His art includes forms of printmaking, painting, staining, drawing and installation.
"He responds to cicadas, shifting surface of water, ochre coloured ground and sounds of nature, transforming these into drawings and paintings on paper, using natural pigment stains and inks," said Rae.
"His work overlaps its physical presence with fragments of memory, renewal and sensation of nature."
Schwab, from Sydney, creates abstract paintings. His focus is on the process of creating.
"Much of his enjoyment comes from discovery, which he links to personal experiences within nature," said Rae.
"His work at BigCi incorporates these chance and random processes and superimposes elements inspired by marine signal flags. The distortion of this standard communication system reflects how we receive messages around our environmental problems and solutions."
Hailing from Burrill Lake, Frank has a background in illustration and community art.
"She paints images of human-animal morphs, inspired by mythology and dreams, as a comment on our forgotten connection with natural forces and elemental cycles," said Rae.
"She wants to get primal, earthed, pure in her artistic approach. To know the 'all', which we all are. So, the process of her drawings becomes more interesting than any finished work."
All are welcome to the open day, but attendance must be confirmed beforehand by emailing rae@bigci.org is essential
The BigCi is located at 82 Hanlons Road North, Bilpin. For more details visit bigci.org.
