GARRY SHEAD
31 March – 28 April

One of Australia’s leading contemporary artists, Garry Shead has been exhibiting in Australia for over thirty years, including thirteen Archibald Prize exhibitions. He won the Archibald in 1993. Married to Hungarian sculptor Judith Englert, the couple lives in the coastal town of Bundeena on the NSW South Coast – the inspiration for the Bundeena Paintings and his now famous DH Lawrence series. Inspired by the great frescos of Italy and France, and his fascination with the rich heritage of Hill End, it is Shead’s dream to paint a large fresco in the old church building in the village.

ROSEMARY VALADON
2 May – 30 May

A Sydney based artist best known for her large scale oil paintings, particularly portraiture and genre scenes, Rosemary has been short-listed for the Archibald and Sullamnn Prizes several times and has been awarded the Portia Geach Memorial Award and the Blake Religious Art Prize among others. Her work contains aspects of myth, symbolism and women’s experience, childhood stories, issues of ‘home’ and a growing questioning of place. Her work, like Hill End itself, has a timeless quality that is part of the appeal of the village for the artist.

TERRAIN ARTISTS
6 – 20 June

Artists involved in the group exhibition Terrain, exhibited at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery from 2 May – 9 June 2003 will be in residency at Hill End in 2003. The group of six high calibre new and emerging artists use a variety of style and media to present a diverse range of themes and concepts that explore a multiplicity of concerns about landscape. Participating artists include John Douglas, Jacqui Drinkall, Shaun Gladwell, Alex Kershaw, Jennifer Leahey, David Pavich and Michael Schiavello.

SOMA GARNER
23 June – 21 July

Soma completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting at the National Art School, Sydney in 2001 and has twice been shortlisted as finalist in the Brett Whitely Travelling Scholarship. As a figurative painter, Hill End will offer Soma a rich subject matter. Primarily, Soma would like to correlate the rich tradition of the town with the myths surrounding it. She is also interested in exploring the contrasting themes of isolation and the sense of community that the spirit of Hill End’s past and future evokes.

JACK RANDALL
25 July – 22 Aug

Jack studied fine art at Alexander Mackie in Sydney, then traveled around Australia and through Europe. He currently lives in the village of Guerie from where he undertakes commissions, public murals, decorative and commercial signwriting, while continuing to work and paint. His work has been exhibited widely in NSW and is held in regional galleries, corporate and private collections. Jack’s work uses simple forms, familiar scenes and at times common found objects to express the bizarre amid the usual. In Hill End he proposes to explore the intangible elements at the edge of the impact of human activity on nature.

RICHARD BYRNES
25 Aug– 22 Sept

Sculptor and art teacher Richard Byrnes has been a practicing artist for eighteen years. He has exhibited in Australia and overseas, won four Sculpture Prizes in Sydney and has been selected as finalist in both the Wynn and Blake Prizes. His work is dominated by imagery of machinery, animals and the human, as well as the landscape which involves these elements. He is keen to explore Hill End as an inspiration for sculpture with a distinctly Australian rural quality, as well as to search for interesting sculpture components.

JUDY BARRASS
26 Sept – 24 Oct

Judy Barrass began working as a potter and weaver in NSW in the early 1970’s. In the early 1990’s, she undertook a course in Paper and Book at the University of Tasmania Art School, and since then has concentrated on books and paper as her medium. Much of her work revolves around using the book as a medium for visual interpretation of the landscape. Using handmade and commercial papers, found objects, collage, maps, flyers, photographs, prints, fabric and whatever else comes to hand, Judy plans to develop several artists books focussing on Hill End. Judy’s residency will be funded by the Australia Council.

ZOE MACDONNELL
24 Oct – 24 Nov

Textile artist Zoe Macdonnell studied at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney. In 2002 her work was selected to tour with New Design, a national graduate exhibition of new design at the Australian Centre for Design, Object Galleries. She also received the Object Award for studio based practice, 2002. The main concepts which run through Zoe’s work revolve around the study of landscapes at both a macro and micro level. Much of her work refers to the graphic interpretation of a landscape expressed through the symbols and conventions of maps. In Hill End Zoe will use elements of the landscape including contours, undulations, surface textures and natural specimens to create a series of works on silk. Zoe’s residency will be funded by the Australia Council.

MARGARET ROBERTS
28 Nov – 26 Dec

An installation artist with a sculpture background, Margeret is currently a lecturer at the Sculpture, Performance and Installation Studio at Sydney College of Fine Arts. Her installation work has been exhibited throughout Australia since 1987. Margeret uses simple materials such as coloured oxide, newspaper, string and video to create spaces defined by architectural and natural forms. These spaces allow for the presence of the viewer within them. In Hill End she plans to develop ways of exploring and documenting contemporary landscape and its history in ways suggested by the site itself. Margeret’s residency will be funded by the Australia Council.

CURTIS RHODES
Jan 2004 – Feb 2004

Professor of Art at West Michigan University, Curtis Rhodes has been a practicing artist and art teacher in USA for over thirty years. Concerned with cross-cultural identity, his work draws on objects, codes, signs and symbols, shared myths, fears and rituals of modern and primitive, past and present cultures. Hill End’s rich symbolic history and powerful landscape features will provide Curtis with powerful visual and metaphorical subject matter.