Saturday 13 November 2021   10:00am

Splendour

Works from the City of Bunbury Art Collection

The term ‘seascape’ was said to originate back to the 16^th Century. As opposed to landscapes, a seascape portrays a view either from the coastline or at sea. This can include scenes from oceans, beaches, and coastlines to nautical scenes.

It is a genre of painting that has been popular amongst art lovers and collectors for centuries. Their popularity is attributed to many reasons and speak a common language: seascapes celebrate the splendour of the natural world and document the environment we live in.

Over the years, seascapes have remained a popular subject matter amongst artists, especially in a country like Australia, where the beach and the ocean are such an integral part of our lives.

This exhibition comprises of a wonderful selection of artworks by artists inspired by water, using a variety of mediums, including painting, etching, watercolour and drawing. Although most of these works represent coastal life around Bunbury and the South West, there are some beautiful scenes of other parts of our country.

‘Lone Casters’ by Brendon Darby is a scene of a isolated coastline, possibly in the South West of WA and the artist captures the light beautifully. While artists such as Charles Frank Norton, Ivor Hunt and Sam Wheeler painted Bunbury Port and Koombana Bay in detail. Bunbury’s Back Beach is captured in a variety of styles by George W. Bourne, Alan Turton and Alex McMurray.

Also on show are treasures such as ‘Waiting for the Tide’, an atmospheric depiction of a beach scene in NSW by Arthur Merric Boyd senior and a superb watercolour of port life in Fremantle, by Ian de Souza.