Wow! Colour, energy, action! In her recent exhibition (22 June - 2 July, 2000), Monica Kotulla filled the RSL Hall in Karratha  with large colourful paintings and three dimensional objects.

Vibrant colour and energy stream out of many of  Kotulla's paintings. Working in an expressive style, Kotulla paints in broad brush strokes in vivid colour and drips and slaps the paint on as she conveys her emotional involvement in what she is doing.   Her paintings of flowers and some of her landscapes are bright and exude happiness. Blue Sails and Celebration 2000, a vivid blue, yellow and white painting of yachts on a harbour shows Kotulla's design and composition skills.

Other paintings are more gloomy. Some of her paintings of women are not beautiful - rather they show torment and ugliness.   The most interesting paintings are those which convey troubled emotions. In Self- Rejection  Kotulla has slapped white impasto over a self-portrait, obscuring her face. This painting is framed in a simple black wooden frame which adds to the sombre mood of the painting. Dejection is another powerful painting in which thick black lines create the form of a head sheltering in the fold of an arm.

Kotulla is to be congratulated on presenting this ambitious solo exhibition.
 

The Art Competition at Wickham on June 24 as part of the Wickham Community Expo showed a range of local artistic talent.  This competition was open to residents of the Shire of Roebourne and fifteen artists entered, with a total of thirty four paintings, drawings and prints.

Vikki Terrett won the competition with a striking oil painting titled Hamersley Gorge. Terrett has successfully conveyed the deep colours and flowing lines of the rock strata at this stunning location. A different depiction of Hamersley Gorge, titled Purple Patches - Hamersley Gorge won Philip Partington the third prize. The second prize was awarded to Terry Thompson for his acrylic painting Wahloo Waterhole.

Several other works also stood out in this exhibition. Duck Creek, a watercolour and pastel work by Beverley Skurlis, was an attractive view of Pilbara hills covered in patterns of soft mauve clumps of spinifex. Using different media, both Pauline Retz and Katherine Gibson successfully conveyed the beautiful soft colours in what can be a harsh environment in their respective works, Rocky Outcrop and Cossack Lookout.

The Pilbara landscape, with its rich colours and fascinating forms, has inspired much of the art in the most recent exhibition at the Karratha Airport (6 June - 17 July, 2000). Four members of the Wickham Multi-Arts Group have contributed to this varied display of seventeen paintings and one print.

Some of the paintings by the four artists are quite similar in style, revealing the sharing of ideas within a closely supportive group. However the best results have come when each artist has pursued her own style.

In Rich Earth the artist Pauline Retz has used watercolour to paint a view of a valley bordered by rocky outcrops. She has then drawn with pastel crayons onto the painting to accentuate different textures, such as the coarse grasses and the rough rocks. This combination of techniques contributes to the success of this well composed picture.

In her pastel drawing Mangrove, Rosemary Cresswell has achieved some good tonal effects. The freedom of drawing with soft crayons rather than, for example using oil paint, has helped this artist to convey the water's fluidity and the texture of the bark of the tree.

Katherine Gibson shows her potential in her small painting Roebourne Shire. Gibson has used flowing lines in different tones of green, brown and mauve, to show the contours and smooth organic shapes of the hills. This style also works well with the sky in which rounded white shapes with soft grey centres float in the blue expanse.

The most appealing work in this exhibition is Claudia Kraus' acrylic painting titled Illusions. The artist has made this common view of spinifex more interesting by painting it from a slightly elevated viewpoint, so the viewer looks down onto bright green and gold spinifex set against the rich red earth. Clouds hover along the horizon line beneath a vivid blue sky. Kraus has used rich colours that are much brighter and more intense than those found in nature. This heightened colour scheme, the slightly abstracted forms and the interesting viewpoint make this a very engaging painting.