Robyn Sweaney – The Summer That Was

Summer is the season of blue skies and constant excitement. However, the sun slowly changes, and autumn fills the air with melancholy. Autumn is the season to remember the summer. A season to embrace the marching of time and accept our mortality.

Arthouse Gallery presents, The Summer That Was, an incredible new series of paintings by Robyn Sweaney.

Robyn Sweaney, excavates on the complexities and contradictions of the Australian identity. Tightly refined homes and streetscapes that function as repositories of identity. The paintings are incarnations of the beliefs, behaviours, emotions and spirit of the Australian vistas. The exhibition displays the mundane beauty of suburban, rural landscapes during a dark autumn. The paintings rejoice the beauty of simplicity which awakens strange sensations of timeless calm, silence and nostalgia.

Finally, the paintings are a journey to the artist’s past. The Summer That Was, explores the psychological currency of the artist’s pilgrimage to Victoria. A place where she spent the summers reconnecting with the landscapes of her childhood. The paintings celebrate the desire to escape and to reconnect with unchangeable places far away from the chaos of the current times.

“Even though a pilgrimage is usually voluntary. There can also be a strong urge or desire that feels involuntary” says Sweaney.

Until Aug 12. Art House Gallery, 66 McLachlan Avenue Rushcutters Bay. Info: www.arthousegallery.com.au 

By Manuel Gonzalez