Ian Marr

Painters' Places - Numinous Neighbours

5 May - 30 May

Places carry both meaning and spirit far beyond their geographical presence. Painters' Places - Numinous Neighbours is an exhibition of paintings that capture IAN MARR's engagements with places in Australia, Ireland and across the world, which hold personal significance to the artist. These works are imbued with MARR's passion for history and travel.

MARR's paintings are tonal explorations into his most treasured areas, particularly in Australia and Ireland. These works are from the 'painters' places' in MARR's life: Tory Island, the Glens of Antrim, Wilcannia and Bruny Island. MARR often paints his textural landscapes on local slate, wood, copper and canvas. Working on the surfaces that originate from his painted vistas and locations give MARR's work a direct and literal link to a particular place and its natural world. His soft toned colours and viscous, gestural application of paint evoke many eras of landscape tradition and history. As it is for bird lovers, where if you sit quietly in the bush & wait, the whole natural world will come to you, so with painters, but the quiet shelter is the house, studio, residency or hut that gives you a temporary home while the waves crash & wind roars.

MARR is drawn to a long history of painters' relationships with place. For MARR, painters bless, and are blessed by, places: Samuel Palmer's Shoreham, Joan Eardley's Catterline, Lloyd Rees' Northwood and Werri, Horace Trenery at Port Willunga, and Derek Hill at Tory Island. These are places recognised and brought out through the minds and actions of painters and writers, a rich and generous collaboration, selfless and open to the unasked and unexpected revelation.