Roland Hemmert   online art gallery
artist's statement



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 "Instead of trying to exactly reproduce what's before my eyes,
I use colour  more arbitrarily,
to express myself my forcibly."

Vincent van Gogh

What Roland paints is the conversation he has had with places, the country that plays and goes on playing between him and these bluffs and trees and scarps and tors and lightscapes and valleyfloors and firegrounds that stopped him dead and quickened him and asked him to stay. 
                                            Mark Tredinnick, poet & essayist                                         



My artworks are not just about what the eye can see or about a particular point in time. They are an attempt at capturing the feel and essence of a particular place.

Often I revisit a place in order to further explore other aspects of that landscape or to elaborate on a theme or a series. For me it's all about getting intimate with place.

In order to do this I end up spending a lot of time just sitting or walking and of course sketching a particular landscape and generally just tuning in. I believe that country is sentient and if you listen close enough you'll hear Her speak.

I'd even go so far as to say that certain places ask to be painted or even written about. In the same way as a person would commission an artist to paint a portrait .  And so quite often I've found myself whilst on a painting trip taking a detour thereby gathering landscape commissions along the way.

As for the artworks, my pastels are usually started on site but always completed away from the place. I do this for 2 reasons. The practical one is that under hot conditions both I & the pastels have a tendency to melt and secondly when I'm away from the subject I reflect upon what feelings and memories I retain.  As for my oil paintings they are always done in the studio where I draw upon the sketches and also reflect and visualize being back out there.

Aside from painting I also have an interest in the psychology of CG Jung, Eastern Philosophies, comparative mythology, poetry, literature and archaeology. I'd like to think that these interest also inform the way I create my artworks.

So I bring all these elements together in the crucible that is my studio and I hope that my pictures, to once again quote van Gogh "speak".


  enquiries:
rolandart@bigpond.com
  or phone 0447 621 556          
or 02 4782 3168



 
curriculum vitae

Roland's artworks are to be found in corporate, private & overseas collections.

Nov/Dec 2011
Arboreal
(group exhibition)
Macquarie University Art Gallery

July/August 2011
Interior Journeys; Solo exhibition
Links House in conjunction with The Milk Factory Gallery, Bowral
and
dinner event: Landscape as the Beloved
the artist in discussion with Poet Mark Tredinncik and cultural critic/author Prof Deborah Bird Rose


Feb/March 2010

Solo Exhibition “3 States” 
Weswal Gallery, Tamworth NSW

Dec 2009
Christmas Group Show” 
Weswal Gallery, Tamworth NSW


2009/10 
Images & text included on
Blue Mountains World Heritage Institute Website
for Stories of the Blue Mountains


JUNE 2009
Red Earth Country
SOLO EXHIBITION
The Milk Factory Gallery
BOWRAL NSW

DEC 2008
Group Show 
The Milk Factory Gallery  Bowral  NSW

JULY 2008
ARTWORK FEATURED IN MAGAZINE
WORLD LITERATURE TODAY
To illustrate an essay by  Poet  Mark Tredinnick

DEC 2007
GROUP SHOW
HATHILL GALLERY
BLACKHEATH


JULY-  AUGUST 2007
SOLO EXHIBITION 
LANDSCAPES  
HATHILL GALLERY BLACKHEATH



APRIL 2007
BRANCHING OUT: STORIES OF THE BLUE MOUNTAINS
HOSTED BY BLUE MOUNTAINS WORLD HERITAGE INSTITUTE
BY INVITATION ONLY


SEPT 2004
SOLO EXHIBITION:
WESTERN JOURNEYS 
L&S GALLERY BATHURST


2001 WORKS ON SHOW AT LILIANFELS KATOOMBA



2001 ARTWORKS ON CONSIGNMENT WITH
DISCOVER ART AUSTRALIA
SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
 

2000  WORKS ON SHOW AT
LILIANFELS KATOOMBA


2000
GROUP SHOW
INTERIOR JOURNEYS
GALLERY ON LURLINE KATOOMBA 




Working on site at Arkaroola, South Australia
photo: Bill Forward

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