Kristin Headlam

The Blue Square

Heiser Gallery, Fortitude Valley

The Heiser Gallery is a small simple space in Fortitude Valley, from the

outside you may walk past without realising its a small gallery, wide enough

for a ingle painting in its window, and on a side street in the busy valley.

Concrete floors and natural feeling lighting make for a ideal location to show

any art form. The space is long and narrow yet spacious enough to stand

back and appreciate the paintings within. Ideal for individual exhibitions.

Director Bruce Heiser deals with leading Australian artists from 1920

onwards.

The artist currently on exhibition is the Tasmanian born Melbourne based

artist Kristin Headlam. I really enjoyed viewing her current paintings. More

than half of the 20 paintings were a study on the changing outlook onto her

back yard, which she paints from her studio, and the remainder were

paintings of objects from her yard.

The paintings although of the same simple space are so varied, they evoke a

different mood in each one. The seasons are clearly represented as are the

different times of day, they capture beautifully the light and shadow. The same

tree as it goes through the cycles, the small things that happen in the yard, for

example a bird in the tree, washing on the line, the wheel borough and plastic

green garden chairs that move around. The building of a house in the next

block makes for a changing view, from timber to pink undercoat to the

finished result. Simple things beautifully painted in oil, or in water colour

gouache on paper. There are also smaller works such as birds and flower

pots from her garden. One is an ink painting of a bird.

The technique in oils is quite loose and I would describe it as realism with an

impressionistic brush style. The white of the canvas left in some blank

instances to create white space. Many greens blues greys and browns

depending on the season, the use of less variety of colour seems to create

more impact to me, beautiful natural light captured in the paintings. The blue

wall features in most of the yard paintings, as the title of the exhibition "The

Blue Square" suggests. It seems the exhibition is a year in the life of a typical

Melbourne back yard. Lots changes in the paintings yet a lot also remains the

same.

I love that the subject is something we may overlook, if we were to explore

the yard I don't think it would occur to many to capture it in all it's season and

the simple beauty that changing daylight creates, and to paint that process.

Yet as an artist this is her constant view (so i believe) so it seems only fitting

for it to be painted. On looking at her other works I see Headlow captures

everyday life in simple moments, I really love her choice of subjects. I think

they would resonate with many Australians. Her other paintings are of
ordinary life and people.

Jennifer Padgett