Photographer Sherianne Talon and artist Lee Porter at Coomba Falls on Tuesday

March 3, 2015

by Anne Miller

A month or so ago, Murgon artist Lee Porter asked me to nominate one of my favourite spots in the South Burnett … without hesitation, I suggested Coomba Falls near Maidenwell and the beautiful grass trees near the waterhole.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but it became one of the first sites nominated for the “Dual Arts” project, an innovative creative exercise that is combining painting (by Lee) and photography (by Murgon’s Sherianne Talon) to capture the essence of the South Burnett.

Lee and Sherianne invited me to accompany them to Coomba Falls on Tuesday morning while they made sketches and took photos of the site I had nominated.

Over the past few weeks the pair have been busily visiting spots all over the South Burnett which have been nominated by local residents, tossing around ideas, sketching and capturing them on camera.

Independently, the duo will each prepare 20 works to be exhibited in August in Kingaroy, and possibly Murgon.

The project is being sponsored by the South Burnett Regional Council’s RADF program.

There is also a tourism angle to the arts project.  Co-ordinator Sandra Hoffman – who has been helping Lee and Sherianne get permission to visit some of the more obscure places nominated – plans to put together tour packages to encourage people to visit the area.

Lee and Sherianne expect to visit 40 or 50 nominated sites before the project ends – and are still looking for more suggestions (you can lodge your proposal on their Facebook page)

So far Lee has completed four paintings, and Sherianne has prepared five or six photos.  Neither will see each other’s work until the project is comleted.

It may sound like Lee has the harder job … making paintings, but Sherianne’s photos are anything but snapshots.

“Some of the photos I have worked on for 15 hours or more,” she said.  “The end result has to be something special, something you can’t do with an iPhone or an iPad.

“My personal touch has to be in every single photograph.”

Who says photography isn’t art?

Related articles:

Sherianne Talon at work at Coomba Falls

Lee Porter makes a preliminary sketch
Painting versus photography … Lee Porter and Sherianne Talon are putting their skills to the test and capturing the South Burnett at the same time

 

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