September 22, 2015
The Kingaroy Art Team who took over the operation of the Kingaroy Art Gallery on August 1 have chalked up record sales with their first art exhibition, “You Will Never Understand”.
All this month – and right through to Tuesday, October 6 – the Gallery is showing paintings and pastels by Brisbane artist Noel Miller.
Not only has Noel’s work never been seen in the South Burnett before, but the exhibition marks the first time in many years his pastel portraits and paintings have been shown side by side.
Noel said the reason he never exhibited his two dramatically different art styles together was that past experience had taught him they rarely mixed.
“You can’t hang them together in the same room because they’re so wildly different it just doesn’t work,” Noel said.
“And if you go the other way and put the paintings in one room and the pastels in another, everyone looks at the paintings and no-one looks at the pastels at all.”
What won him over was the Kingaroy Art Gallery’s unusual layout.
This has allowed his bright, lustrous paintings to dominate the main gallery spaces while his more restrained, moody and intimate pastel portraits line the Gallery’s central access corridoor.
On opening night, many visitors said the two styles were so radically different they would never guess they were the work of the same man.
This month the main gallery features Noel’s glowing outback landscapes, most of which were painted around Quilpie, while the smaller front gallery houses some works he painted on his last Antarctic trip.
Noel has been painting full-time for the last twelve years after deciding to retire from a high-flying professional career.
He now goes to the Antarctic once a year on a cruise ship, where he lectures passengers on Antarctic art and paints, usually selling most of it to his fellow passengers.
The paintings on show in his current exhibition are made with a mixture of collage, coconut hair, PVA glue and acrylics, all welded together into a sturdy finished piece with an oil glaze.
The end results are brilliantly coloured landscapes which have an almost 3D quality, and which need to be seen in person to fully appreciate.
The work needed to create them is painstakingly tedious and time-consuming, but it has built Noel a loyal following and a steady income.
KAT Director Wayne Brown said the group was delighted to have Noel’s exhibition in the Gallery.
They chalked up $6000 in sales in the exhibition’s first week – a record that showed there was a local market for quality artworks.
“We’re certainly hoping we can continue to bring exhibitions of this calibre to the South Burnett in the months and years ahead,” Wayne said.
“Our communities’ approach to the arts has matured, and we want to help that process continue.”
- “You Will Never Understand” will be on display at the Kingaroy Art Gallery at 128 Haly Street, Kingaroy from 10:00am to 4:00pm weekdays and 10:00am to 2:00pm on weekends and public holidays until Tuesday, October 6. Admission to view the exhibition is free.
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