Ellen Hubble and Ray Dahlstrom with Ray’s three-panel Ghost Net. By Catherine Watson
RAY Dahlstrom and Ellen Hubble were going to call their joint exhibition Depth, until they realised there were too many floating things in their paintings.
So they have called it Real & Imagined, the idea being that the title would challenge them both.
While Ray found inspiration in the depths of the ocean, Ellen looked beyond the clouds to outer space.
Long-time painting friends, these two award-winning artists work very differently.
For Ellen, painting starts with an emotional, aesthetic response to a colour or the play of light on the sea or a hill. Despite 30 years of art practice as an artist and secondary school art teacher, she cherishes the moment when the unexpected happens in her art.
RAY Dahlstrom and Ellen Hubble were going to call their joint exhibition Depth, until they realised there were too many floating things in their paintings.
So they have called it Real & Imagined, the idea being that the title would challenge them both.
While Ray found inspiration in the depths of the ocean, Ellen looked beyond the clouds to outer space.
Long-time painting friends, these two award-winning artists work very differently.
For Ellen, painting starts with an emotional, aesthetic response to a colour or the play of light on the sea or a hill. Despite 30 years of art practice as an artist and secondary school art teacher, she cherishes the moment when the unexpected happens in her art.
“Art is a lifelong continuum of creativity, blending experiences with what you see and leaps of faith into what you don’t know.”
 Twilight Glow: Ellen Hubble |  Gippsland Hill: Ellen Hubble |
While the exhibition includes her customary seascapes and landscapes, she has ventured into new territory with several large abstract works, under Ray's orders.
“My usual response is ‘I don’t do abstracts’. What helped me is that since moving from the Dandenong Ranges to Bass Coast I’ve noticed the skies a lot more: the clouds, the play of light.
“With these paintings I started looking further, beyond the clouds, into space. The visuals from the Hubble telescope [the real Hubble telescope in space, not the household one at Harmers] and the Webb telescope were my starting point then I’ve played with light and shadow and colours.
“My usual response is ‘I don’t do abstracts’. What helped me is that since moving from the Dandenong Ranges to Bass Coast I’ve noticed the skies a lot more: the clouds, the play of light.
“With these paintings I started looking further, beyond the clouds, into space. The visuals from the Hubble telescope [the real Hubble telescope in space, not the household one at Harmers] and the Webb telescope were my starting point then I’ve played with light and shadow and colours.
Echo by Ellen Hubble. The inspiration came from images taken through the Hubble telescope.
"With the forms you could be looking at it from under water. It could be seaweed clumps floating by."
Ellen was under pressure given that she curated the Woodlands Exhibition in June and the Wonthaggi Acoustic Music Festival in July. It was only in late July that she could turn her full attention to painting.
Did the tight deadline help? She laughs. “Of course it did!
“Then I got a message from Ray to say I needed to do some big works. I'd run out of time so I did them in acrylics so they would dry in time. I usually fight with acrylic but I decided I just had to get on with it."
And what did she think at the end of it? “I’m quite happy with it. It was really fun not having to make anything look like anything.”
For Ray, a former economics teacher and a self-taught artist, it starts with a concept, which he then finds a way of realising in paint.
Ellen was under pressure given that she curated the Woodlands Exhibition in June and the Wonthaggi Acoustic Music Festival in July. It was only in late July that she could turn her full attention to painting.
Did the tight deadline help? She laughs. “Of course it did!
“Then I got a message from Ray to say I needed to do some big works. I'd run out of time so I did them in acrylics so they would dry in time. I usually fight with acrylic but I decided I just had to get on with it."
And what did she think at the end of it? “I’m quite happy with it. It was really fun not having to make anything look like anything.”
For Ray, a former economics teacher and a self-taught artist, it starts with a concept, which he then finds a way of realising in paint.
Antarctica Melting: Ray Dahlstrom “It’s a thought process about where I want to go with it. In Antarctica Melting, the streak of red signifies carbon hitting the water. Like the old litmus test for alkaline and acidity. So that’s the acid hitting the water. The blue is obviously the sea and the take-up of the sunlight as it hits the ice.”
Having lost his house and studio in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, climate change is always in the back of Ray’s mind.
“A lot of the stuff I do frightens people,” he acknowledges.
Not that his work is always grim. “People will often look at a work and see all sorts of things that I didn’t think of.”
Having lost his house and studio in the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires, climate change is always in the back of Ray’s mind.
“A lot of the stuff I do frightens people,” he acknowledges.
Not that his work is always grim. “People will often look at a work and see all sorts of things that I didn’t think of.”
Acid Ocean Revisited: Ray Dahlstrom His trademark jellyfish represent all sorts of things. Sometimes they are the last survivors in an acid sea that has killed off all the fish and other vertebrates.
But sometimes they are just jellyfish, beautiful creatures moving peacefully through a translucent ocean with complete freedom.
As Ellen points out, there is always hope – a tiny green shoot after a bushfire; a solitary caterpillar on a twig, a lone butterfly in the sky. “There’s always a sign of life in Ray’s paintings.”
And then there are his 3D works which are almost entirely whimsical: shearwatera returning to Phillip Island at dusk; malevolent cats and rats; various incarnations of Ned Kelly.
Real & Imagined, ArtSpace Gallery, 1 Bent Street, Wonthaggi, until September 22. Open daily 11am-3pm. Official opening is Sunday, August 18, 1pm-3pm. All welcome.
But sometimes they are just jellyfish, beautiful creatures moving peacefully through a translucent ocean with complete freedom.
As Ellen points out, there is always hope – a tiny green shoot after a bushfire; a solitary caterpillar on a twig, a lone butterfly in the sky. “There’s always a sign of life in Ray’s paintings.”
And then there are his 3D works which are almost entirely whimsical: shearwatera returning to Phillip Island at dusk; malevolent cats and rats; various incarnations of Ned Kelly.
Real & Imagined, ArtSpace Gallery, 1 Bent Street, Wonthaggi, until September 22. Open daily 11am-3pm. Official opening is Sunday, August 18, 1pm-3pm. All welcome.
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