Sophie Ashdown

While in Australia, we were in a lovely seaside town near Melbourne called Sorrento. It’s a gorgeous little town with a beautiful beach, great cafes/restaurants, fantastic independent boutiques, and a surprising number of art galleries.

We went into several of the galleries to view the art which was interesting but didn’t bowl me over. Then outside the Sorrento Contemporary Art gallery I spotted this piece:

It’s hard to get a great view of the painting because it is behind reflective glass, but it is a large monochrome piece with a repeating circular pattern that is hand-painted. I loved it and of course we had to go and look around.

The gallery was full of fascinating and beautiful aboriginal art.

I loved the intricacy and pattern of the pieces. This one above reflects the colours and ruggedness of the Australian landscape beautifully. Everything is done by hand and must take ages.

I’m not as much a fan of the colours above but I still really love the layers of patterns.

There is an incredible flow in the works with how the patterns are distinct but flow together.

This one had my particular interest. It is similar to some pieces that I have made in the past. If you look at a detailed view, you can see the individual brushstrokes:

Of course I like the monochrome colour palette too!

This piece above could almost be a chart or diagram. Or something out of the Matrix film series. It’s amazing that artwork created by small communities in deep country Australia can create art that is so technical looking in nature.

We chatted to the gallery manager at length who explained about each artist and how/why they created their work. I really loved the pieces and enjoyed learning more about their origins.

I have often been asked if my own work was inspired by aboriginal art, and generally I say not directly, but I did live in Australia for a total of about five years so certainly it could be influencing me.

From the experience of visiting this gallery in Sorrento I felt very inspired and may use elements in some of my own work.