ART INSIGHTS FROM THE CASTLEMAINE FESTIVAL


How can you be original? That’s a question visual artist Abbie Heathcote was asked at the 2017 Castlemaine State Arts festival (March 17-26). Her heartfelt response included the unexpected. Here’s a paraphrase of what she said: Find what enlivens you and put all that life and feeling into your work. It lives there, and when viewers come to the artwork they absorb the feeling and they are enlivened.
This is a potential outcome from any activity we undertake. When artworks are created with love and commitment to truth they certainly touch a viewer with their life and originality. Imagine the beauty and richness to be discovered from such a relationship. Meaning grows from that.
Stephen and I spent the weekend at the festival. If you don’t know Castlemaine, it is a country town in the central Victorian goldfields region. It’s rocky, dry and still speckled with gold. There was so much to see and hear, including a powerful opening night dance-drama by kids from Castlemaine Secondary school. Most of the main events were booked out but fortunately our friend Ken Killeen took us to meet artists in their open studios. As an artist and art teacher he was keen to show us the people whose work he valued - except that we enjoyed talking with the artists and being amidst their work so much we ‘lingered’ and didn’t get to meet everyone he wanted us to.

Abbie Heathcote                                                                        Diane Thompson
Last of all we attended the launch of a group show ‘Behind the Moon’ that included Abbie and sculptor Diane Thompson, Ken’s wife. And yes, we responded in kind to the magic and wonder in their work – to Abbie’s loving close-up views of vibrant nature, and Diane’s ‘identity crisis sheep’ with wings, feathers, echidna spines etc., a whimsical comment on how European sheep graziers thoughtlessly extinguished the farming traditions of the indigenous Dja Dja Wurrung people. Art as pure joy; art as message – different starting points, and artistic expression can be wonderfully varied. What mattered was the artists’ commitment of their inner life and feeling, and their integrity and skill with the language of art to bring this to fruition. We, the viewers, were enlivened and went away thoughtfully enriched. Good art does that.

 www.helenmartineau.com.au

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