Vision Improbable

The May/June exhibition at Jing Jo Gallery is be a solo show by Shoalhaven artist Jim Birkett. Many of you will know of him from his long association with the Bundanon Trust.

Jim has been making art all his life. He says of his beginnings: “I was born in Cumbria in the North of England and many of my weekend teenage years were spent exploring the mountains, lakes and fells of the English Lake District. Walking the landscape, sometimes in wet cold weather, enabled me to come to terms with the harshness of the terrain but also the beauty. My legs became tired making it to the top most peak of a mountain but the sensation of conquering this mass of rock was most rewarding. These explorations in my youth helped me to understand that the physical experience of the land is more rewarding than just taking photographs. This has led me to rely on experiences and memory as well as imagery in my artwork.

My experience of the Australian landscape especially the Shoalhaven is different to the Cumbrian one. The stunning rock escarpment along the Illawarra, the Jervis Bay coastline.”

This show will contain recent drawings and paintings. Of his work he says “Some works will be based on a broad understanding of landscape but others are motivated by my investigation of personal imagery motivated by travelling through the environment and my reliance on memory.

I can walk on a beach and be inspired by the crabs digging holes and throwing sand out in circular patterns to driving down a road and being influenced by the double lines and broken lines in the middle.”

Jim has taken part in many exhibitions in the past decades, and his most recent solo show “Embedded in Land” was held at the Shoalhaven Regional Gallery in 2017.