For the love of art

KORUMBURRA-BASED artist Tony Parisi hopes a current local exhibition of his pencil and graphite works inspires stronger artistic connections across the region.

He is secretary of Art Connect South Gippsland, a community for emerging, evolving and established artists.

It aims to develop relationships with galleries, artists, tourism operators and local council.

Tony developed a passion for Korumburra while running a B&B there years ago, at that stage living in Leongatha.

That passion sparked an active involvement with the local community through the Korumburra Round Table, a forum created to be a voice for locals.

In 2015, Tony worked with other participants in the Korumburra Round Table to identify the town’s arts community and some of its members aspirations.

That knowledge was shared with South Gippsland Shire Council, boosting understanding of the local arts scene.

Tony also assisted in establishing the Korumburra Arts Group.

He grew up in Darwin, completing his fine arts studies there, achieving a Diploma of Fine Arts and a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) at the Darwin Institute of Technology.

During his years at art school, Tony’s focus lay in printmaking, particularly etching, and sculpture, with the latter sparking an interest in fibrous plaster mould making.

He continued to work in those areas long after art school.

However, his current exhibition at the Korumburra Art Gallery illustrates where his creative focus now lies.

Tony explained that his current works tie in strongly with his original artistic interests as a boy.

“My focus has been using lead pencil and graphite to create images, and it goes back to my initial interest in art and pencil drawings as a young lad,” he said.

His use of pencil and graphite also fits in with his interest in printmaking, especially etching, without the need for expensive equipment such as an etching press.

“Working in black and white allows me to explore and develop a lot of ideas quickly,” Tony said.

It enables him to rapidly transform an idea into an image on paper.

Tony’s work is neither a straightforward depiction of its subject, nor an abstract version, but a blend of the two.

“By looking at the landscape and representing it in a stylised way, I’m able to then incorporate other elements that aren’t necessarily related to that landscape,” Tony said.

“Stylising is looking at something in nature and reducing it to a basic shape,” he explained.

While Tony’s current exhibition includes works from his time in Darwin, and others based on preliminary sketches while living in Melbourne, there is a distinctly local feel to many of the exhibits.

“The main body of the work on show is of a landscape theme produced in 2021 when I had moved to Korumburra,” Tony said.

That move was not a large one, just a hop from Leongatha.

Tony encourages those interested in involvement with Art Connect South Gippsland to contact him, or the group’s founder and president George Manis.

Email artconnectsouthgippsland@gmail.com or ring Tony on 0407 219 639.

Tony Parisi’s Korumburra exhibition is at Federation Art Gallery, Korumburra, from Monday, February 14, and is open during library hours.