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Anne-Marie Randall

25 June - 26 August 2013

Richmond Library Space, 415 Church St, Richmond

A Tale of Two Dreams

Works of ceramics, acrylics and mixed media on canvas

Report by Carmel O'Connor

How often does an artist choose to use their artistic talent combined with formal study of art, to present a body of images that may reveal personally deep, emotional reasons as the basis for motivation?

Anne-Marie Randall, a long time member of the Contemporary Art Society of Victoria Inc., has chosen to share a sorrowful experience juxtaposed with a joyous celebration to present a display of her creativity using mixed media, 2D and 3D in the disciplines of both Painting and Ceramics.

Fourteen motifs, as if they are fourteen Stations of the Cross, with poetic titles such as Kissing the Moon, Six Little Angels, King Tree, and Small Heart Bowl, are among the catalogued list. The overwhelming sense of time hangs with these images as they are generated over a ten year period in the artist's life; incorporating cyclical events of a woman's life.

Small Heart Bowl, ceramic, 4.5 x 7 x 6 cm, 2012, by Anne-Marie Randall

The exposé is contained in two separate areas, a glass showcase at the entry foyer and a wall space just beyond the reception counter of Richmond Library on the corner of Charlotte and Church Streets, Richmond.

The adversity within Anne-Marie's life experiences brings forth as if giving birth to this densely crammed, passionate exhibition of pictures plus ceramic utilitarian objects, symbols of acceptance as her most personal struggle deepens her understanding of life itself.

Anne-Marie shares and touches other people of similar experiences plus all people with an eye for the visual but without her gifts of expression.

Display case, Richmond Library foyer; works by Anne-Marie Randall

Kissing the Moon, a painting loaded with symbolic objects. The central motif is a modelled skull in high key tints detailed with blue linear shading to enhance the facial features; this treatment of the pictorial suggests to me a brooding sense of time past, but through the artist's management of the application of paint plus her complicated push pull effect of the central motif relative to the decorative use of the field on the canvas, a successful painting has been produced. I think this picture, the most expensive in the show and with good reason, has the ability to resonate with our feelings far beyond which any words can describe.

Kissing the Moon, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 76 cm, 2003, by Anne-Marie Randall

The Dream is a text based piece and I wonder why Anne-Marie has chosen to use text when she is so gifted in both technical ability and pictorial structural effects. The ten year gap between these two works may shed some light on the fact of an ever restless artist always striving to better practise within a contemporary confine.

The Dream, mixed media on canvas, 41 x 81 cm, 2013, by Anne-Marie Randall

Two other favourite pieces of mine are Small Heart Bowl and New Years Eve. Small Heart Bowl just because I love small objects plus the wonderful red glaze used to highlight one of the heart shapes within the carousel of symbols adorning the outside wall of this little vessel.

New Years Eve, mixed media on canvas, 76 x 50.5 cm, 2010, by Anne-Marie Randall

New Years Eve because this painting, strange as it is, has the ability to engage with the viewer at an instant. The image enhanced by its title as we understand the all encompassing wonderful times when we love for love's sake.

I encourage you all to see this exhibition before 26 August 2013.

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