Artists Marion East and Lars Stenberg in front of their works on show at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
SCENES of Victoria’s natural beauty are central to a new exhibition by artists Marion East and Lars Stenberg at the Art Gallery of Ballarat.
On show until August 5, Aurora seeks to capture the unique light and patterns of the environment in central Victoria through different, but complementary works by the artists.
Stenberg’s high colour renditions of the landscape are in contrast to the stark black and white works of East.
Arriving in Victoria in 2002, Stenberg says his bright pieces are in response to the muted colours of his native Scotland.
“(Gallery director) Gordon Morrison brought us together for this exhibition so we met and fortunately loved each other’s work,” he said.
“We decided to call the show Aurora because Marion’s work is concentrating on the morning light and my work is any old light from the day here in Australia.”
East, who has lived near the Brisbane Ranges for much of her life, said her work was underpinned by decades of familiarity and understanding.
“This is the first time I have ever taken works home rather than have them in the exhibition, as I wanted this to be a very tight show,” she said.
“The works took me on a bit of a journey.
“This is a winter, pre-dawn light so I found myself sitting at my window waiting for the sun to come up which is a very short space of time each day.”
She said the artworks in oil and charcoal showed the impact of the drought on Victoria’s landscape.
Aurora, a free exhibition, is on show until August 5.