Visionaries: Christianity and the Visual Arts

Christianity and the Visual Arts

New Life Exhibition: July 20 – August 20, 2021

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Peter W Sheehan Gallery, Australian Catholic University
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm

 1100 Nudgee Road, Banyo

Resurrection by Dianne Minnaar

Please visit our latest exhibition starting July 20, 2021 at the Peter W Sheehan Gallery, Banyo.

Artists: Juana Bernardo, Mariangela Bonasia-Lewis, Jennii Gould, Joy Harris, Rosemary Hennii, Kerry Holland, Marcelien Hunt, Jennifer Long, Marion McConaghy, Laura McDade, Dianne Minnaar, Deb Mostert, Barb Niczynski, Gregg Nowell, Murhaf Obeid, Sue Oliver, Tricia Reust, Sharon Roberts, Dona Spencer, Tanya Van Reijsen, Geraldine Wheeler

Transformation: Lent to Easter Exhibition

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After having to close early because of COVID-19 restrictions please enjoy a few of the exhibited works here.

The Exhibition in the Vera Wade Gallery
Exhibition in Vera Wade Gallery
More of the artworks exhibited
Cees Sliedrecht, Jesus crucified again in the New World, Mixed media, 100cm square
Two works by Jennifer Gould – The Silence (left) and Triumph (right),
Paper weaving, 30cm x 21cm
Bee Lay Kirk (Grace Yap), Unfolding, Acrylic, 40cm x 30cm
Geraldine Wheeler, Psalm 139, Gouache stencil painting, 71cm square
Geraldine Wheeler, Water to Wine, Gouache stencil painting, 35cm square
Laura McDade, Hope, Black and White photograph, 29.7cm x 42cm
Sharon Roberts, He takes my rags, Mixed media on Canvas, 45cm square
Marion McConaghy, Full Circle, Mixed media scuplture, 60cm x 30cm
Marion McConaghy, Three Crosses, Mixed media Sculpture, 100cm x 30cm
Marion McConaghy, Discovering the Empty Tomb, Steel welded sculpture, 60cm x 60cm

Catalogue essay by Geraldine Wheeler

The theme, “Transformation”, has allowed for the contributing artists to interpret it in a wide range of ways, some relating to the biblical stories and events remembered in the time of Lent to Easter, some taking a more personal expression of the experience of the transformation of life and yet others reflecting upon transformation as observed in the natural world to which they can also give personal meaning. For some of the artists the making of their work is also an experience of personal transformation or therapy.

            The gouache stencil work by Geraldine Wheeler which has been used for the poster, Water to wine, makes reference to the story of John 2:1-11, the wedding at Cana, sometimes referred to as Jesus’ first miracle. The six jars filled with water by the stewards are found to contain fine wine. The painting hints at this story of transformation of water into wine with the shapes of six jars and the curling vine design which is taken from  early mosaic designs seen in Ravenna, Italy, and in other ancient mosaic church floors.

            Different ways that human lives are transformed by the Spirit of God through the coming of Jesus, his life, death and resurrection are referenced in several paintings and photographs.

             Cees Sliedrecht pictures a crucified Jesus in the modern world, an event to transform all times and places. Jennii Gould’s three paper weaving works, using black and coloured paper, show the movement from the cross to the tomb to the resurrection. The art of paper weaving can also be a transformative and therapeutic process for the artist. Laura McDade’s photographed work of floral art, the dark cross transformed by the beautiful white lily, also suggests the transformative power of Jesus’ crucifixion.

            The process of painting and its value for the artist is shown in Grace Yaps’ triptych of panels with the colours, red, yellow and white having strong symbolism, pain, love and light, and the traces of the movement of the artist’s hands are clearly seen on the surface. Sharon Roberts’ He takes my rags, which is constructed into patterns from discarded rags, carries a range of symbolism. One layer of this is the reference to the charity shops which are given people’s cast off clothes which sometimes help others and sometimes are tossed out as useless rags. Here that which is thrown away is again useful. The worn and apparently useless is not rejected by the love of God.

            In several works there is reference to light, including some already mentioned. Gwenda Branjerdporn’s small, delicately coloured works are full of light. Sarah Ticker has the light in the eye of the person who is experiencing a transformation from near death to life. William Stevens’ photographs show falling streams of light, while Julie Stevens’ photographs show the changes in the waves. Both of these sets of photographs ask us to see the symbolism of the theme in the natural world.

            Marcelien Hunt’s lovely, different pictures reflect upon different human experiences in The Inner Child of Addiction and Baptism. Geraldine Wheeler’s Ps. 139 aims to suggest the range of human experience and life stages in which the Psalmist knows the presence of God, God’s knowledge of the person and the power of that presence in all of life.

            The installations/sculptures by Marion McConaghy can be understood as a transforming use of material often previously used for other purposes as each makes reference to the cross and resurrection of Jesus.

            As the exhibitions opens we, unfortunately, cannot have the painting by Gregg Nowell, Tide, on display because he was called away in a family emergency. Hopefully it can be included later. The tide certainly brings changes, carries floating objects and transforms what it carries. A photograph of this large work is displayed.

            The artists of Visionaries offer these works for reflection to the congregation and to all visitors and thank the St. Andrew’s congregation for the opportunity to make this contribution to its life, witness and mission.

Geraldine Wheeler, convener.

Follow the Light

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Follow the Light

25 November 2019 – 18 January 2020

Vera Wade Gallery, Brisbane

The theme of this year’s exhibition, Follow the Light, is dynamic. It calls us to action. We look upward and beyond in hope, joy and peace – God’s promise to us. We step out in faith towards “the light of the world”. We look to Christ’s love and forgiveness, the wonder of His presence in our lives.

Mariangela Bonasia, God’s Light in the Storm, Acrylic on canvas, 120 x 90cm
Jennifer Gould, Jesus is the Light, Paper weaving, 60 x 45 cm
Marion McConaghy, Emmanuel…God with Us (Matthew 1:22), Mixed Media, 45 x 30 cm
Marion McConaghy, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow (Psalm 136), Mixed Media,
45 x 90cm
Laura McDade, (From left to right) Alight, Spring, Surge, Digital photographs
Graham Moss, Just Follow the Light, Watercolour, 57 x 77 cm
Susan Pietsch, Seeking the Light, Digital Photograph, 92 x 61 cm
Sharon Roberts, Following From the Shadows, watercolour, 43 x 36 cm
Bernice Ross, Follow the Light, Colour on canvas, 60 x 60 cm
Cees Sleidrecht, Follow the Light, Mixed media 6 panels, 150 x 50
Dona Spencer, Fly Along with me, Mixed media, 60 x 60 cm
Julie Stevens, Light Chaser, Triptych photographs, 25 x 15 cm
Geraldine Wheeler,
(Left) Light for the World, Gouache stencil on black Stonehenge paper, 60 x 55 cm
(Right) Magnificat, Gouache stencil on black Stonehenge paper, 60 x 55 cm

Soulscape 2: Celebrating 20 years of Visionaries

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After exhibiting in 3 spaces earlier this year we are delighted to bring you part of the exhibition digitally. Some artworks were only shown at one location while others toured all three.

The work represents the variety of styles and expression that Visionaries has exhibited over the past 20 years. Some of the works were in the original Soulscape exhibition while others are new.

Gwenda Branjerdporn, The Word fills my life, Watercolour and ink on paper, 32cm x 45cm
Gwenda Brandjerdporn, The Lord by Wisdom, Photography on canvas, 32cm x 345cm
Ruth Elvery, Naomi, Watercolour, 95cm x 68cm
Ruth Elvery, The Cross-towering o’er the wrecks of time, watercolour, 73cm x 92cm
Lindsay Farrell, Noosa Camino, Oil on canvas, 102cm x 100cm
Jennii Gould, Born to fly Upwards, Artist’s Book, mixed media on paper, 22cm x 15cm
Joy Harris, Where can I hide from you?, Acrylic, 61cm x 46cm
Marcelien Hunt, Still Life, Oil, 54cm x 64cm
Marcelien Hunt, At the Train Station, Oil, 53cm x 74cm
Jennifer Long, Turbulence, Mixed media, 58cm x 67.5cm
Jennifer Long, Edge of reason, Mixed media, 50cm x 40cm
Marion McConaghy, Travelling Home, Mixed Media on paper, Triptych, 66cm square each
Marion McConaghy, Travelling Home, Mixed Media on paper, Triptych, 66cm square each
Marion McConaghy, Travelling Home, Mixed Media on paper, Triptych, 66cm square each
Gregg Nowell, The sacred flame, Acrylic and gouache on canvas, 27.5cm x 35.5cm
Gregg Nowell, Now you see me, Acrylic and gouache on canvas, 30.5 cm x 40.5cm
Gregg Nowell, My hiding place, Acrylic on canvas, 45.5cm x 35.5cm
Sue Oliver, Held Together – waterpaths, Mixed media, 38cm x 68cm
Sue Oliver, Held Together – gorgescape, Mixed media, 38cm x 68cm
Jenny Phillips, 4 Banners, Fabric
Susan Pietsch, On reflection things are different, Acylic on lutradur, diptych, each 100cm x 50cm
Tricia Reust, Resurrection Prayer Cycle, Mixed media on canvas, 103cm x 72cm
Iain Renton, Edge of the World Turning, Acrylic on canvas, 128cm point to point across.
Rita Ringma, Three bowls, ceramic
Sharon Roberts, Still waters overflow, oil, 51cm x 22cm
Cees Sliedrecht, The Gift of Life, watercolour, 72cm x 92cm
Geraldine Wheeler, Woman’s Praise, Gouache stencil paintings (set of 9 framed together), 105, cm x 85cm

Soulscape II Opening At Merthyr Rd Uniting

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Ruth Elvery: The Cross – towering o’er the wrecks of time (Tallin, Estonia)
Watercolour, 73cm x 92cm

A wonderful evening was held to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Visionaries. The book “Art + Faith” was launched along with the Soulscape exhibition.

Geraldine Wheeler: Founder and Convenor of Visionaries

Geraldine Wheeler introduced the artists and spoke about each work.

Keynote Speaker: Dr Lindsay Farrell

Dr Lindsay Farrell reflected on the ideas of faith and art and how it manifests in various expressions as shown by the exhibition.

Jenny Phillips produced the book Art & Faith to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Visionaries. Many thanks to Jenny for putting this book together and also to Kevin Phillips who assisted with the organisation of this Opening event. For copies of the book please contact us and we will forward your inquiry to Jenny.

Opening Night
Opening Night: Kevin Phillips introducing the evening
Iain Renton: Edge of the World Turning
Acrylic on canvas, 128cm from point to point.

Soulscape II Visionaries art exhibition reflection

            The artists and friends of Visionaries firstly express thanks to the minister, Rev. Murray Fysh, the admin officer, Debbie Riddell, and all the members of Merthyr Road Uniting Church, for agreeing that we hold our 20th anniversary celebrations here, at Merthyr Road UCA, where it all began, as part of the church’s seeking to reach out to the artists of the New Farm community and beyond in SE Queensland, and encouraging Christian artists to recognise the role of their faith as they make works of visual art. The first exhibition, “Soulscape”, was held in May 1999.

We hope that the current members of this congregation who were part of the planning and development then will enjoy looking back to those times and the new members since then (our last exhibition here was in 2005) will be enriched by knowing this part of the congregation’s history. Visionaries these days has made St. Andrew’s Uniting Church in the city with the Vera Wade Gallery there, its home congregation, through the generous invitation of that church which developed the gallery space in the first decade of the 21st century. We made links there from 2006, exhibited regularly from 2010 when the new Vera Wade Gallery space was finished and became more formally linked there in from 2017/18.

This Soulscape II exhibition includes some of the work shown in 1999, e.g. the Frank Wesley woodblock prints, work which has been done over the time and some completed especially for this 2019 exhibition. The book that Jenny Phillips has prepared, The Art of Faith, includes photographs from the opening events of those early years and then thoughts and pictures offered by a group of present members of Visionaries.

We give thanks to God for inspiration across the years and every way that any person has been aware of the presence and love of God for them through the art which has been made.

Geraldine Wheeler, May 2019

Soulscape II continues in July at the Peter W Sheenan Gallery at the Australian Catholic University, Banyo, Queensland from July 2 – July 28, 2019.

Soulscape II

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Visionaries 20th Anniversary Exhibition

May 24 – 26, 2019

Merthyr Road Uniting Church, New Farm, Queensland, Australia

The celebration for the 20th anniversary of the first Visionaries’ exhibition will be held over the last weekend of May, 24th to 26th, at the Merthyr Road Uniting Church, New Farm. Friday night May 24th will be the party celebration and opening of the exhibition, 6 pm to 8.30 pm.

Download the poster to help promote this exhibition

SOULSCAPE A4 POSTERDownload

Lenten Reflections Exhibition 2019

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Lenten Reflections

An exhibition by artists of Visionaries  

4 MARCH – 26 APRIL, 2019

Artists: Gwenda Branjerdporn, Sue Mansill, Marion McConaghy, Graham Moss, Sue Oliver, Rita Ringma, Sharon Roberts, Bernice Ross, Cees Sliedrecht, Frank Wesley, Geraldine Wheeler.

Lenten Reflections 2019

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Lenten Reflections 2019

An exhibition by artists of Visionaries  

4 MARCH – 26 APRIL, 2019

Vera Wade Gallery

St. Andrew’s Uniting Church

Corner Ann & Creek Streets, Brisbane City

Artists: Gwenda Branjerdporn, Sue Mansill, Marion McConaghy, Graham Moss, Sue Oliver, Rita Ringma, Sharon Roberts, Bernice Ross, Cees Sliedrecht, Frank Wesley, Geraldine Wheeler.

View the Flickr Album of the Opening HERE

Lenten Reflections by Geraldine Wheeler

Catalogue essay

The artists who have placed work in this “Lenten Reflections” exhibition have considered a range of scripture readings used at this time of the year, most reflecting on the passages read during Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter Day. Some reflect upon the layers of human experience in these stories and their own life experiences.

The period of Lent is traditionally linked with the period of forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness, tempted by the devil, after his baptism by John (Matt 4: 1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4: 1-13). For the English artist, Stanley Spencer in the 20th century, it offered the inspiration to do one picture of Jesus in the wilderness for each day of Lent. He only managed nine however, the series on permanent display in the Art Gallery in Perth, WA. In this Visionaries’ exhibition there are two works alluding to this Gospel story.

Gwenda Branjerdporn’s Christ in the Wilderness, is a small work with the central, lone figure. Geraldine Wheeler’s Temptation in the Wilderness, is a large, gouache stencil painting presenting each stage of the story in the order as told in Matthew’s Gospel, reading the panels from bottom left clockwise. The temptations are suggested in images while the words of scripture which guided Jesus’ answers are in text. The wilderness is pictured as the central Australian desert and Jesus as a small, seated figure. This is the second version of the work, painted after the 9/11 aeroplane attacks in New York, with the picturing of the kingdoms of this world including city towers and aeroplanes.

            The gospel reading for the last Sunday in March is Luke 15:11-32, often referred to as the parable of the prodigal son. The large woodblock print, The Forgiving Father, by the late Indian Christian artist, Frank Wesley, depicts the forgiving welcome home given by the father to his younger son who had run away and wasted all his money, returning destitute and disgraced. Wesley’s oil painting of this hangs in the Hiroshima Girls’ School, Japan and a small number of prints were made from the woodblock in Brisbane in 1999 by Geraldine Wheeler. (Wesley lived about the last third of his life in Nambour, Queensland.) The woodblock is now housed for safe-keeping in the art department of the Australian Catholic University at Banyo. Some people have noted that the way the father is shown as catching his son to prevent him falling to the ground is almost cruciform.

            The theme of forgiveness is also in the title of Sue Mansill’s work, Forgive, which is a semi-abstract depiction of the head of Christ wearing the crown of thorns. Two other artists have chosen to draw the Christ figure with the crown of thorns, Sharon Roberts in her charcoal drawing, Turn the other cheek, and Marion McConaghy in Grace –my gift to you, where the Christ figure is behind the praying man in the foreground. Beside these works is the untypically dark painting of Cees Sliedrecht, Peter’s denial of Jesus, Peter in agony perhaps already expressing deep remorse and knowing the need of forgiveness.

            Three of the works make symbolic reference to trees and, of course, the cross of Christ was made of wood. The tree can carry layers of symbolism. In Geraldine Wheeler’s Gethsemane, the agony of Christ’s praying is set before the twisted, gnarled branches of old olive trees, such as those seen today in the garden in eastern Jerusalem which is thought to be that of Gethsemane. The trees can also express the agony of the prayer while the disciples sleep. Sue Oliver, in her parallel paintings, the first tree and the second tree, presents to us the tree of death and the tree which begins to sprout new life, with underlying reference also to the cross of Christ.

            Bernice Ross in Layers of Dirt suggests the varying layers of human experience in all their diversity, using the colours of purples. Her second work, As the dawn begins, is done in glowing reds, browns and oranges, in contrast, to offer expressions of hope.

            The two works which point more specifically towards resurrection are Geraldine Wheeler’s They went out and fled from the tomb (Mark 16: 8) and Graham Moss’s Victory. The former tells of the confused women leaving the empty tomb after hearing the angel’s message but before meeting the risen Christ and the latter looks further into the future as the gospel of Christ has spread into many cultures and the worship of many peoples. The reflective journey through Lent moves towards the cross and then the victory of the resurrection and beyond.

            The exhibition contains two installations, Marion McConaghy’s Three Crosses and Rita Ringma’s water-filled ceramic bowls, with the title I thirst. The timber used for the crosses is recycled carpenter’s sawing horse timber and the crown of thorns encircles the top. The layers of meaning in Rita Ringma’s installation ask us to find the layers of reference to and meaning in water. Jesus on the cross said, “I thirst”, but he is the one who offers the gift of living water. We see the bowls of water and are called to reflect upon the mystery of God’s ways of relating to wayward humanity, evil in the world and offering gifts of grace, forgiveness and love.

             The artists of Visionaries again thank St. Andrew’s Uniting Church and those particularly connected with the Vera Wade Gallery for the invitation to offer this Lenten Reflections exhibition as an opportunity for those who visit to spend time in reflection and prayer, and an opportunity for the artists to seek their own expressions of faith through the making of these works. Geraldine Wheeler, co-ordinator.