Black Barn brings art exhibition to Bridgetown for Blackwood River Arts Trail

Bridgetown painter Laurie Bullied will be opening her studio to the public as Black Barn Studio opens its doors for the Blackwood River Arts Trail. The studio will be open from March 23 to April 7 for the fourth Blackwood River Arts Trail, with artist Laurie Bullied sharing her studio with four other artists on the trail. Artists displaying their works at the studio include 2D artist Gemma Lawlor, painter and drawer Jennifer Loverock and sculptor Dennis Wilson. Mixed medium artist Su Berghuis-Garde will join them, each artist displaying different collections of works for those wanting to see a variety. Lawlor’s style of work reflects the strange beauty of landscapes, using printmaking combined with collage and painted textural backgrounds. She is motivated by being in places of beauty and inspiration, including white salt lakes, eroded red bluffs at Riddell’s beach and red pindan soils. Loverock’s work includes layered interiors exhibiting her strong compositional and drawing skills, with a rich colour palette. Host Bullied‘s works consist of oils on canvas and includes whimsical portraits of women, with intimate and grand works, which are calm, strong and mysterious, with some works containing gold leaf. Berghuis-Garde has recently incorporated stitch into her work, and uses leaves, silk, linen, sticks along with paint pencil and print mediums to create tiny concertina books and wall hangings. The Blackwood River, as a metaphor for regeneration and connection, is a dominant theme of her body of work, while memories and stories from places and moments have contributed to her visual vocabulary Wilson will display his works in the studio garden, with his bird species and native flora sculptures created from scrap metal in a range of sizes showcasing his vision combined with outstanding welding and angle-grinding skills. Situated on Eedle Terrace, the Black Barn Studio is one of 35 venues across the Nannup, Bridgetown-Greenbushes, Donnybrook-Balingup and Boyup Brook shires which will be hosting 67 artists presenting works to more than 6000 people.