SPACE 3 & WINDOW EXHIBIT ROOM: PERPETUAL LEARNER BY ANDREW ANKA
Exhibition dates. 7 - 18 Sept 2022
Opening Reception : Thur 8 Sept 2022, 6:00 - 8.30pm.
Perpetual Learner
I have been a painter for the last thirty years – I got the bug when I was given a set of oil paints and some small canvass boards as a birthday gift. Now, in my sixtieth year, I can afford the luxury of time to create in my own studio.
I have some experience of exhibiting; group shows, some competitions, and have sold well, and I taught beginners for a short time from a private Gallery. After the last Global Financial Crisis, I took a few years off– art is always the first to feel the effects of economic down-turns – but when I picked up the brush again eighteen months ago it was with a renewed vigor and hyper-active enthusiasm.
My new work is simply about solidifying my artistic identity and introducing myself to the larger Melbourne/Australian arts community. I am passionate about my art, and my variety of life experiences helps enhance my images and the stories I need to tell. I also want to impart more than just a captured moment: I need my works to have a before and after - as if I have created a full sense of time that has a past, a present and a future. As any good story should.
I try to create believable characters. Even my lollipops have character - in their shape and form, size, and their individual twists and twirls, they identify differently but are similar in their biology. I hope they impart a fun yet striking statement about inclusion for all genres of humanity.
My birds are characters. Some are even larrikins. The three amigos (Rainbow lorikeets playing in a low tree branch) are a perfect example of inner-city characters and how they live peacefully and undisturbed amongst us. I came across them, no more than a metre away in a small gum tree while walking my dog one morning, and they were just as curious of me as I was of them.
I am excited about my current works and, more-so, what I have planned for the future. A recent trip to East Arnhem land has burned a deep impression in me and I have already begun work on a solid series.
I hope Melbourne’s art fans enjoy my images as much as I enjoyed bringing them to life.
@the_artist_anka
The Artwork
