Mail Bag: Mainly Galleries

As you know I like to commence the Mail Bag with a creative work. Today's is a statue of a postman carrying a bag of mail which can be found in a street on the Spanish Canary Island of Tenerife.

Credit: Desiree Martin/AFP via Getty Images

And here are some details of the postman statue. I do love the patina that builds up on bronze over the years.

And now to open the mail bag. D in Bendigo sent me an article (Bendigo Art Gallery's Tansy Curtin moves to Art Gallery of South Australia by Chris Pedler from the Bendigo Advertiser farewelling Tansy Curtin, the curatorial manager at the Bendigo Art Gallery who after 13 years is leaving to take up the role of Curator of International Exhibitions at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

Tansy Curtin (Bendigo Advertiser 20 March 2020

Tansy's last exhibition in Bendigo (Central Victoria) was to be Bessie Davidson & Sally Smart -Two artists and the Parisian avant-garde.

Bessy Davidson was an expatriate Australian artist and Sally Smart is one of her descendents who has developed a body of work in response to Bessy's oeuvre. Although we can no longer see the exhibition we can watch a Youtube video where Tansy with Sally Smart give an overview of the exhibiiton.

Tansy Curtin assisted in the following exhibitions held at the Bendigo Art Gallery. Those of you who live in Victoria might have attended some.

  1. The Golden Age of Couture
  2. Grace Kelly: style Icon
  3. Marilyn Monroe.
  4. Tudors to Windsors: British Royal Portraits

Caroline has written a couple of posts on the Bendigo Art Gallery Exhibitions which you might like to check out.

Is The Queen Sleeping on The Job?
Showcasing the Tudors to Windsors: British Portraits- Bendigo Art Gallery, Central Victoria, Australia. Includes the famous Ditchley Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1 by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger.
You can still find gold nuggets in Bendigo
Bendigo Art Gallery, one of Australia’s oldest & largest regional art galleries was founded in 1887. Bendigo architect WC Valhand supervised the conversion of the former Bendigo Volunteer Rifle’s orderly room ( View Street) into a home for the Gallery’s collection. (Wikipedia)

Tansy comes from South Australia so she is returning to her home state. As a Bendigonian myself I really like what she had to say about the people of my home town.

"I have loved the way Bendigo businesses get on board and celebrate what the gallery does. That's fabric of Bendigo's personality - everyone gets on board."1

The mention of galleries which at the moment are beyond our reach, might reduce you to tears. But the age of technology is showing its power as we discover additional ways of communicating and entertaining ourselves.

E in London forwarded some suggestions which I will give you over the coming weeks. Today I have chosen the National Portrait Gallery, London which has over 150,000 portraits for you to check out.

Finally today, I can recommend an on-line gallery visit to look at the fantastic oil paintings created by American Artist Erin Hanson's who paints in a style she calls Modern Impressionism. Below is a link to a blog I wrote on Erin's work some time back. I have also included a link to Erin's blog which offers hours of enthralling entertainment. She is one of my favourite contemporary artists and well worth a gallery visit.

Erin Hanson: Modern Impressionist
Erin Hanson’s artistic style has been inspired by painters such as van Gogh, the Group of Seven, the early California Impressionists and Japanese Art
Artist Adventure Series, No. 6 - Erin Hanson’s Blog
Erin Hanson’s Artist Blog includes articles for art collectors and art lovers. Get tips on how to collect art, how to design your home with artwork, how to make a living as an artist, and more.

Reference

  1. Bendigo Art Gallery's Tansy Curtin moves to Art Gallery of South Australia by
    Chris Pedler, The Bendigo Advertiser, 20 March 2020.