October Exhibition: "Friends and Other Animals" by Anita White

“In my painting I am always preoccupied with colour and light.
Long shadows and strong contrasts are generally what I look for.

My favourite thing is to paint people when they are doing something they love, like reading, walking the dog, visiting an art gallery.

I try to bring a sense of stillness and calm to my subjects.”

- Anita White

ABOUT THE EXHIBITION

These paintings have all been painted during the current lockdown.

They were painted in response to seeing how happy our animals were when they had more of our company.

The longer the lockdown has continued, the more agitated we seem to be about what the future holds.

Walking the dog each morning has been a respite from the worry, a little bit of normality in our day.

Most of the paintings are of local scenes and a number of them are set in Lawson Dog Park.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Anita began working life as a teacher of Art and English.
She grew up in Lithgow, moved to Sydney to attend Uni, then taught in Penrith, Blacktown and Taree. For most of her married life she has lived in Wentworth Falls.

After having her own children she requalified as an Interior Decorator and has worked under the name of Colourworks, giving advice to people in their homes and businesses in the Blue Mountains, on colour style and surface.

In 2017 Anita began oil painting on a regular basis, after attending classes in Annandale. Until then she drew mostly in oil pastels. Her first exhibition was at Braemar Gallery in Springwood in 2019 and the topic of that exhibition was people viewing artworks.

Last year's exhibition was held at Everglades and Anita and a fellow artist Caren Berzins painted memories of a trip they shared to Scandinavia.