The Natural Shape of Things
Sea - Land - Sky

Roma McLaughlin and Kathy Fahey’s most recent exhibition ‘Coastline’ 2021 depicted the powerful tides, monumental cliffs and rock formations of Southern Victoria. The artists explore this theme further in ‘The Natural Shape of Things, Sea-Land-Sky’.    Both artists are interested in the beautiful shapes, forms and colours we see in the natural world.  The patterns of water crashing into the shore, the shape of trees against the back drop of a cloudy sky, the folds and crevices of majestic rock formations and the long shadows and reflections cast by trees are all depicted in this exhibition in a series of paintings, paper cuts and collages. 

'Shape’ is a common element in the artists’ image making. In Kathy’s collages she adds and combines the shapes of torn hand painted paper. In her paintings vigorous colourful renderings of shape and form are integral to the work. Conversely Roma’s papercuts are created by cutting shapes from the paper with a scalpel to define the complex patterns of water and land forms. Roma uses hand painted coloured backgrounds behind these shapes to suggest subtle changes in the weather, ocean currents and tides.

In the work of both artists there is a juxtaposition of size between large monumental pieces though to small intimate vignettes, an exploration of how different sized work can affect the impact of shape and colour. While Kathy develops a dialogue between her paintings and collages Roma resizes and reworks old paper cut images, the emphasis being on different papers, colour and framing.

Roma and Kathy have had extensive experience using different art materials and processes and have worked as community artists throughout their artistic careers. They exhibit regularly in Australia and abroad and their work is represented in private and public collections.