Audrey Warren is the featured artist at The Gallery in Mogo until Christmas and is a painter of buildings, land and seascapes initially in oils but of late she has moved to watercolour. One of Audrey's earliest memories is of sitting under gum trees, at a very early age, sketching her surrounds. She comments that “I never stop thinking about painting.” Audrey prefers to allow the painting to evolve and to let it tell its own story, rather than painting with a preconceived plan. She invests her imagination more in the use and application of her chosen media. While Audrey has lately turned to watercolour, many of her works in The Gallery are representative of both these mediums. Of painting in oils, Audrey says “I love the smell of turpentine and the freedom it allows to experiment with ideas. It allows both change and invention while still working on the painting.” Audrey also a member of the ‘All Weather Artists’, where she prefers to paint outdoors in watercolour. Of this she says that she likes the magic of watercolour, both its transparency and the impressionistic qualities that are possible. A large, oil painting at The Gallery, ‘Sunrise Eurobodalla’, is inspired by scenes from the highway going south to Bega and the sun can be seen rising behind a row of silos set against a background of imagined buildings. A subtle and sensitive watercolour study titled ‘Surf Beach’ is also featured at The Gallery.
She says, that when she painted this scene it was one of those lovely Batemans Bay days when it was a pleasure to be outside. Audrey, was born in Brighton, a beachside suburb of Melbourne and spent much of her early years in that city’s beautiful outer suburbs. She moved to Sydney in 1984, and seven years ago retired to Batemans Bay to be near her daughter in Canberra. Work and family life took up much of her time in early adulthood, but she has found increasing time to devote to her art since the late 1990's. Audrey has won several prizes for both oil and watercolour paintings and her paintings grace many homes all over eastern Australia. The Gallery is a co-operative venture of CABBI, a society open to local arts and crafts practitioners. People interested in finding out more about CABBI should drop in to The Gallery or phone 4474 2243.
