Gaylene, a familiar figure crossing Waterloo Green or sketching in Redfern Park, is a much-exhibited artist. She has had paintings in several Orchard Gallery exhibitions, in particular, Retrospective (2010), Everyday Spirit (2011), Portraits (2012), Presstagram (2013), shared an exhibition with Bill Maddock, Memories and Observations (2010), showed at the Global Gallery, Paddington (Ragtime, 2011) and at the Fire Gallery, Newtown (Revolt, 2012). Now, as a tribute to her success and a showcase for her skill and inspiration Gaylene has a solo show at the Orchard Gallery curated by the talented artist, Jovana Terzic, and opening December 14.
As a child Gaylene loved to draw. She recollects drawing with a stick in the dirt on the side of the road while waiting for her dad, and that later when the locals noticed the drawings they would say, “The Garner kid has been here”. Her mother made sure not to leave a writing pad where Gaylene could lay her hands on it because once she found it, she used it up rapidly. Paints or crayons were hard to come by at Black Box, a remote sheep station near Brewarrina, where Gaylene spent her childhood years and of which she has strong memories.
Her early years have influenced her thinking in two main ways. She is conservationist in the sense that she values making much of little. When she was young water was very precious. Drinking water was kept in a canvas bag under the tank and the children had to ask for permission to have a drink. Kerosene lamps provided light and all cooking was done on a combustion stove, as there was no electricity. She remembers vividly helping her mother with the ironing and using a weighty shellite iron. She recalls also taking the “smoko” – a big billy of tea with sandwiches, and heavy to carry – down to the shearing shed. In the exhibition Memories and Observations Gaylene’s depiction of these objects from her childhood, teapots, billy, tea caddy, bread for sandwiches, endows each with a vitality, identity and importance.
The second influence discernible in her work is a love for the natural world. Gaylene remembers the great beauty of the sunsets on the remote property at Brewarrina and how much they inspired her young heart. It is not such a stretch to see that inspiration still in the way Gaylene uses colour, blending and matching, contrasting and shifting in much the same way as the colours of the setting sun meld and flow. Further, her colours are often pure, unadulterated, as it were, by over-manipulation. Although, as she says, abstract painting was not a concept for her until her Ukrainian neighbour, Jana, lent her a book on the subject, the style seemed to come to her naturally.
Gaylene likes to experiment with different abstract shapes and different colours. In these works so opposite to her earlier works from Memories, the shapes seem to be driving each other apart or to be taking away from the surface of the painting as much as Memories was about filling the canvas. It may be that this particular and later aspect of Gaylene’s work reflects a societal change she herself noticed when a young woman employee of Chic Salon, Newtown. Although hairdressing had been her early ambition, her parents decreed she was not to complete the Leaving Certificate which would have allowed her entry to this profession. Gaylene was relatively satisfied working in the bra and girdle department of Chic’s – apart from enforced enclosure in fitting rooms with unshowered bodies – but a new boss saw her find a position at Burwood’s Corsetry. She noted, however, that at the time Westfield and Farmer’s were opening up and that society was changing, “was different somehow”.
Gaylene has been to various art classes over the years, for instance, she learned oil painting at St Mary’s Art Centre. However, it wasn’t until she went to the informal and relaxing Saturday Art Classes held at the South Sydney Uniting Church in Waterloo that she developed confidence in her ability to paint and she feels she owes much to teachers Jo Tracy and Hayley Megan French. Furthermore, the twice-a-month Saturday Art Class gave her the chance to exhibit her work for the first time at the church’s Orchard Gallery. Gaylene made the wonderful discovery that other people wanted to buy her work.
Gaylene Smith’s first solo exhibition will open at the Orchard Gallery (56a Raglan St Waterloo) on December 14, from 5pm.
