Bass Coast Post - Arts news

What’s wrong with this picture?

13/12/2018

The Shallows, by Susan Hall

By Liane Arno

WHEN I interviewed Susan Hall I discovered a woman who conveys her passion for the environment through her art.

She showed me images of birds' stomachs which had been opened out to show a scene as colourful as a handful of M&Ms but far more sinister. Inside these defenceless birds were remnants of the plastic rubbish thrown away by our society. The parent birds feed their chicks a concoction of fish and plastic – mistaken for fish. They suffer a painful death.

New horizons

12/12/2018

After 25 years in the construction industry, Frank Schooneveldt revels in the freedom to create landscapes, on canvas and in real life.

Art of the people

28/11/2018

Gippsland Thylacine, part of the Bronze yarns sculpture park at Coronet Bay created by David Murphy in 2013

CALLING local artists, here’s your chance to create a contemporary and enduring public artwork for the Bass Valley and hinterland region.

Artists are invited to submit design concepts for an “innovative and engaging creative artwork” as part of Bass Coast’s annual public art program. The commission is worth up to $47,000.

We will remember them

2/11/2018

Larry Hills conducts the Bass Coast Chorale and orchestra during a performance of They Went with Songs at Foster on Anzac weekend in 2015. Composite photo: Catherine Watson

THE Bass Coast Chorale will perform local composer Larry Hills’ acclaimed cantata They Went With Songs in Inverloch next weekend as part of a program marking 100 years since the end of the First World War.

In the flesh

19/10/2018

Josephine Allen’s Ecce Femme Strength

By Josephine Allen

MY EXHIBITION Figurescapes was inspired by a trip to Europe and seeing Renaissance religious art in the flesh. I love the way they use everyday people and stories of the time to illustrate social themes.

This body of work was inspired by a conversation with artist friends debating the concept of erotism verses aesthetics in Renaissance religious art. l started thinking about whether females were crucified and found they were. All the female figures are on imaginary crosses and follow the concept of Ecce Hommo (Latin for “Behold the man”), said by Pontius Pilate when he presented Jesus, crowned with thorns, to the crowd before his crucifixion.

Out of the depths

5/10/2018

Coming to a cinema near you

5/10/2018

The Legend of Ben Hall opens the festival in the Wonthaggi Cinema tonight and will be followed by Q&A with the director, producer and cast members.

Films from Australia, France, Lebanon, Iceland, Japan, Israel screen in this weekend’s Wonthaggi International Film Festival.

The art of living

4/10/2018

James Glover in trademark shirt sleeves and sleeveless jumper
during one of his art classes at the Wonthaggi Technical School.

By Catherine Watson

ARTIST, teacher, an early conservationist, a man who spoke his mind … James Glover made quite an impression on Wonthaggi from the time he arrived as a young teacher in the early 1940s.

His artistic legacy is celebrated in a new book co-written by his daughter, Jill Miles, and Arnis Heislers. The Art of Living: Life and Artistry of James Glover will be launched at the Wonthaggi Library at 11.30 am on Saturday.

Write here and now

3/10/2018

The Bass Coast Writers 15th anthology is hot off the press.

By Jellie Wyckelsma

In 2003 a small group of writers discovered the need for a writers’ support group in the local area, so Bass Coast Writers Inc. was formed.

Ever since its foundation many writers have enjoyed and benefitted from this vibrant group; providing positive feedback to members if desired, and also promoting and encouraging creative writing.

Meetings are held at the Inverloch Community House, in the Inverloch Hub, from 1-3 pm on Thursday afternoons, except for a break during the summer months. New members are always welcome.

Step this way for old-time bush dance

20/9/2018

Dancing a reel at a Boulia picnic, Queensland, 1921. Photo: State Library of Queensland

By Mary Whelan

THE great traditions of the bush dance will be revived in Cowes next month when the Bass Coast Acoustic Music Club teams up with Cathy Jones and Judy Lawrence to run a community dance with an eye to the past.

The bush dancing style means everyone can join in as fiddle player and dance caller Maggie Duncan gives instructions until everyone has got the hang of it. No need to bring a partner, just join a set and learn the dance steps as you go.

The art of mystery

13/9/2018

Liane Arno gets up close with Ken Griffiths’ enigmatic Mardi Gras 1, the winner of Bass Coast’s top arts prize for 2018.

Men at war

13/9/2018

Jake Benson, left, Nick Carver and Anthony Kennedy are "The Boys" in Sophie Cuttriss’s production for the Wonthaggi Theatre Group.

By Gill Heal

AT FIRST glance, The Boys mightn’t be your top choice for a good night out. Most people would opt for anything rather than a drama responding to the rape and murder of a Sydney woman back in 1986.

Straight from the heart

12/9/2018

Post readers can win a double ticket to Kavisha Mazzella’s concert in Inverloch on Sunday.

By Sandy Guy

MULTI-award-winning musician and singer Kavisha Mazzella loves crossing musical boundaries and creating community experiences, and she’ll be doing just that in Inverloch on Sunday.

At a special afternoon performance at the Anderson Inlet Angling Club, Kavisha will perform original songs from her new album The Fearless Note. Kavisha accompanies herself on acoustic guitar, while violinist Nic Lyon wreathes soulful violin lines into the songs.

Island artists on national stage

12/9/2018

Jill Rogers' painting Under the Milky Way is a finalist in the Mission to Seafarers Maritime Art Prize.

THREE Phillip Island artists have recently been selected as finalists in national art awards: Warren Nichols in the John Leslie Landscape Prize; and Jill Rogers and Marian Quigley in the Mission to Seafarers Maritime Art Prize.

Tammy steals the show

2/8/2018

MC Tammy Anderson. Photo: Geoff Ellis

By Catherine Watson

WHEN the Post asked people to name their favourite moments of the Phillip Island Literary Festival, one name kept coming up. Actor and playwright Tammy Anderson, who presented her own session and chaired several other sessions, commanded the stage and the audience in a mesmerising display of talent and eloquence.

Festival co-organiser Kay Setches said the committee wanted "stop you dead in your tracks" stories from tellers who gave of themselves. “On Sunday, people were plucking at me, wanting to talk about what they had just heard, groaning about what they had missed, what they thought!

“At times there was barely contained excitement at the ideas aired and conflicts examined. People happily telling me we had got the balance right. I was told Saturday was marvellous and then ‘Sunday was even better’.”

A feast of cinema

19/7/2018

By Marny Javornik

THE reopening of the refurbished Wonthaggi Union Theatre has sparked a bonanza of exciting cinema as local film fans makes up for lost time.

Last Sunday, members of the Bass Coast Fine Film Group enjoyed a special double bill: Gurrumul plus The Death of Stalin.

Next Friday evening fans will be treated to The Travelling St Kilda Short Film Festival featuring 12 of Australia’s Top 100 Short Films.

All together now!

19/7/2018

THECHO!R will perform in Wonthaggi next Sunday along with local singers.

By Caroline Knaggs

PLANNING for a regional choral weekend in Wonthaggi next year led to an unexpected bonus: a concert in Wonthaggi next Sunday featuring the combined voices of the Bass Coast Chorale and THECHO!R .

The two choirs will rehearse together on Sunday morning under the direction of the Melbourne choir’s founding artistic director, the ebullient Dr Jonathon Welch, who founded the Choir of Hard Knocks and Sydney Street Choir.

The inside story of our home-grown lit fest

19/7/2018

Expect the unexpected at Phillip Island's literary festival, including a former Australian of the year sharing the stage with an indigenous rapper.

By Catherine Watson

SURELY this will be the first – and probably only – time Adam Briggs and Tim Flannery will share a stage: the unlikely combo will open the second Literary Festival of Phillip Island in the Newhaven College auditorium next Friday evening.

Flannery is an environmental warrior and former Australian of the year - the only people he makes nervous are the owners of coal mines - while the Aboriginal rapper (‘Briggsy’ to his fans) usually comes with a language warning.

Festival co-founder Kay Setches confesses she’s slightly nervous about how Briggsy's earthy language will be received in Newhaven’s hallowed halls, but she’s also looking forward to the challenge to what is sure to be a largely white, middle class, middle aged audience.

Singing with the whales

19/7/2018

Terry Melvin's video with highlights of the Island Whale Festival's arts program

Words: Laura Brearley
Images: Terry Melvin

TWO whales were seen swimming towards the Cowes jetty on the opening morning of the Island Whale Festival on July 6-8.

At the Cowes Cultural Centre, Boon Wurrung artist and ceremony man Steve Parker honoured the four directions in ceremony and song. He was joined in a ceremonial blessing of the whales by elder and traditional custodian Aunty Fay Stewart-Muir and by whale song man Uncle Bunna Lawrie.

The bright lights of Tenby Point

5/7/2018

A tiny community turned on a mighty show for their winter solstice festival.

Songs of the Betayil

22/6/2018

The humans will be singing back to the whales at next month’s Island Whale Festival. Painting by Lisa Kennedy

The humans will be singing back to the whales at next month’s Island Whale Festival. Painting by Lisa Kennedy

By Laura Brearley

THIS week we took a whale search cruise around Phillip Island. It’s early in the whale migration season and already the crew of Wildlife Coast Cruises have sighted 60 humpback whales heading for the warm waters of Queensland. These numbers are good, they say, and let us know the numbers of humpback whales are increasing every year.

For the last two seasons, I’ve been receiving text messages letting me know when and where whales have been sighted off the Island. It’s a wonderful feeling knowing that they’re there and that, even with so much out of balance in the world, these magnificent creatures are holding to the steady rhythm of their migration cycle.

Their chance to shine

15/6/2018

Lyndell Parker’s gloriously tumbling transparent pink feathers create a link to the local birdlife in the June exhibition for Corinella's luminous gallery.

By Jeannie Haughton

One of the joys of The Edge Of Us project has been the discovery of the interesting and talented people in the Waterline communities.

Happy Bloomsday, Cowes

14/6/2018

James Joyce’s novel Ulysses takes place on June 16, 1904 in the city of Dublin. Tomorrow night Cowes joins the international Bloomsday party when Maggie Millar reprises her acclaimed reading of Molly Bloom.

Clothes encounters with cream and black

14/6/2018

From Ann Dixon’s Bygone Days Fashion Collection

Liane Arno takes a glimpse behind the scenes of a fashion exhibition opening in Wonthaggi next week.

Remembering John

19/5/2018

JOHN Clarke's memory will live on at the Literary Festival of Phillip Island with an annual dedication.