Inspired by Alan Garner

I am delighted to announce that my exhibition 'Inspired by Garner' will be opening early, on March 10 and extending until late April. It is exciting to have this long show that will run during the International Folk Festival and over Easter, School Holidays and the ANZAC weekend. I hope some of you can come visit the works during the exhibition.

I was introduced late in life to the wonderfully imaginative works of Alan Garner OBE, FRSL. Although as a child I read every fantasy, fable, myth and folklore book to be found in my local library, Garner's works never made it to the shelves in Campbell, California. In 2022, Keith Lawrence from Tacit Gallery in Collingwood recommended the latest Garner work to me, Treacle Walker.

This book began a deep dive into the writings of Alan Garner and since then I have been immersed in these creative, quixotic and magical worlds. His beautiful prose brought to me visions that were begging to be drawn, and Blarney Books and Art in Port Fairy encouraged me to create an exhibition based on some of my best loved of these stories.

Each drawing in this exhibition is my reaction to a scene or a line from one of his books. Using primarily graphite pencil with touches of wash or color pencil, I have tried to put on paper something of the characters and scenes my mind's eye envisioned while reading these tales. Just for fun, I have also created a few 3D masks of some of the remarkable critters I discovered in these writings.

Please come and enjoy the exhibition - I hope it brings back some memories of reading these stories when you were young, or else introduces you to Alan Garner and encourages you to seek out his works Trust me, you will enjoy!