JO QUIRK is doing an art residency in one of three art cubes installed down by the rail trail in Loch and is offering Anh Do inspired portraits.
Jo draws or and paints local sitters while they chat about a variety of topics.
She decided to use the residency as an opportunity to get to know local women and to find the commonalties and differences between city and country women.
With cue cards to prompt or inspire the sitter to go beyond small talk and delve into deeper and more meaningful topics, Jo looks to draw out people’s expressions to capture the essence of a person in the work.
So far, she has found local women to be more reserved than their city counterparts.
“It’s been really interesting; a lot of women have been put out by the questions,” Jo said.
The conversations are recorded and a soundtrack with parts of the conversation will accompany the final exhibition of the portraits.
Jo has been a teacher, an art teacher and worked with ceramics for a number of years until she moved with her husband to the South Gippsland region, where she has now taken up painting.
Using a zorn palette, which consists of only red, black, ochre and white Jo mixes the colours to create good flesh tones and away she goes.
“It might not necessarily be the finest art,” Jo said, but if you’ve got some spare time its worth popping in.
Jo is available for sittings between Wednesdays to Saturdays with some variations until Sunday July 9.
Kath Quinert is painting water colours in the other cube. She is offering tea and paint, where people are invited to create a small painting out of tea, coffee and blackberry tea washes, which produces softly coloured charming paintings.
Landcare will be in the third cube with an informative display and then all three cubes will rotate artists and change over on Monday July 10.
Lauren Tausend will be knitting a textile arial map of Loch and the surrounds in one, Hollie Nair will use the second cube as an artist in residency and the Loch Primary school will be displaying artwork in the third.
The cubes will be in Loch until Wednesday, July 26 and artwork can be viewed through the windows when the artists are not there.
