Art ... all at sea

We attended a fund-raising art show held to support the work of the Sydney Heritage Fleet of which organisation my good friend Jon Simpson is CEO.  There was an additional connection because the Fleet's current artist-in-residence is Col Henry who runs a weekly workshop / place for sculptors to gather in the valley next to Dooralong.  Spike's mother attends.

The idea of having artists in residence is highly commendable .. you can hear the but coming, can't you?  I'm afraid I just couldn't warm to Mr Henry's work at all; couldn't even work up hostility and surely the indifference I felt to the works is the least desirable of all reactions.  I tried but not even the obligations one feels to my 35 year friendship with Jon could inspire any interest in the sculptures.  Sorry.

'Port Brisbane' by Don Braben

It would be impossible to feel indifferent to the paintings on display.  With one, two (or at a real push) three exceptions the displayed output of members of the Australian Society of Maritime Artists was breathtakingly banal.  Is not 'Art' meant to inspire, to be transformative, to reach into the heart of the matter, to find the underlying truth?  Seldom have I seen such an array of (mostly) technically competent superficiality.  Nothing could have drawn a purchase out of me.  And when we spent $10 on three raffle tickets (because one must support a friend's cause to at least that degree) I prayed we would not win the first prize, three boats at a wharf rendered in water colours by a member of the Society.  Thank God we lost.

Still, there was a good turn out so there will have been at least a couple of thousand dollars generated by the admission price as well as the same again (or maybe a bit less) from raffle ticket sales plus whatever was raised from the sale of art works.  I did see red spots on several labels.  Some people have more money than taste but, if it helps my mate, so be it.  Beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder.
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