Studio Visit and Interview with Michelle Arnott

Sydney-based painter Michelle Arnott has been captivating audiences with her charming miniature landscapes at the gallery for several years. Now, she's unveiling a new solo exhibition titled Vignettes: Ode to the Road Trip at The Corner Store Gallery, running from November 20th to 30th. This collection of small-scale paintings draws inspiration from Michelle’s journeys between Sydney, Orange, and beyond, with each piece capturing a distinct essence of these familiar yet often overlooked landscapes. It’s a heartfelt tribute to the simple beauty of fleeting moments glimpsed on the road.

Studio Visit with Daniel Rivers

Daniel Rivers first showcased his work at The Corner Store Gallery in 2022 as a finalist for Inside This Box. I've been a fan of his style ever since and was thrilled when he agreed to hold his first solo exhibition with us this year.

Daniel possesses a unique talent for composition and colour. Using soft pastels, his landscapes and suburban scenes exude an ethereal quality. His eye for portraying light over the course of a day or throughout the seasons is magnificent.

I recently visited Daniel in his sun-drenched home in Thirroul just before he packed up and moved to the Newcastle area. Under Sandstone Skies is Daniel’s first solo exhibition, showcasing his deep affection for the landscape surrounding Thirroul on the South Coast. It is an ode to the scenery that has surrounded his home for the past seven years.

Studio Visit with Pippita Bennett

Pippita Bennet is a wonderfully clever textile and fibre artist based in the Blue Mountains in NSW. Pippita has exhibited work with us over the past couple of years as part of group exhibitions and art prizes we’ve held at The Corner Store Gallery. I was immediately drawn to Pippita’s work due to it’s uniqueness, attention to detail and quality of work.

Pippita uses vintage and plant-dyed textiles with thrifted threads to create immaculate, stitched landscapes and other scenery. The colours and patterns are stunning along with the textures created by the different fabrics and fibres used. The incredible amount of work that goes into these pieces is evident, Pippita finds the process very therapeutic and finds herself with needle in hand most of the day.

Studio Visit with Amanda Holman

Local painter Amanda Holman has been consistently exhibiting with The Corner Store Gallery for a number of years now. We first discovered Amanda through one of our many group exhibition opportunities, as we do many of our fabulous artists. From one entry comes many, and her popularity has grown exponentially during this time resulting in Amanda’s first solo exhibition Beyond 4 Walls opening this April at The Corner Store Gallery.

Amanda Holman is a truly lovely and warm person, as well as a wonderful artist in her own right. Her quiet and beautiful depictions of the Australian landscape begin with field trips and drives across this beautiful country we call home. Sometimes painted within the landscape, sometimes painted form photographs back in her home studio. Amanda’s studio is the stuff of dreams, located on the ground floor of her home, accessible via a courtyard from the street. It’s here I first played eyes upon the new body of work for Beyond 4 Walls. Take a look and find out more about Amanda’s practice.

Q and A with Monique Fedor

We first discovered Monique Fedor through our Inside This Box Group Exhibition back in 2021. Monique submitted the most beautiful still life painting of a pear on a plate and has been part of The Corner Store Gallery family ever since. Every single painting she sends our way has found a loving new home immediately, they sell out every time.

We are absolutely thrilled to present Field Notes by Monique Fedor, her newest body of work. Exploring her immediate surroundings and the poetry of every day life, Monique paints moments in time with graceful determination and a conspicuous aesthetic.

Studio Visit with Jane Tonks

This September The Corner Store Gallery is proud to present the newest body of work by local landscape painter Jane Tonks, Refuge. Jane has been exhibiting with the gallery for a number of years and is a very popular member of the local arts community. Jane depicts the local bushland surrounding Orange in great detail with a deep, personal love of the landscape. Her attention to detail, colour and patterns found in nature is extraordinary and the viewer is tempted again and again to look closer and notice the detail.

Refuge is Jane’s first solo exhibition with The Corner Store Gallery and is on exhibition from September 13th to 23rd and we invite you to join us in celebration for the opening on Friday September 15th from 6pm.

Studio Visit with Emily Heath

Emily Heath is one of our favourite emerging artists here at The Corner Store Gallery and is fast becoming one of Australia’s most popular still life painters. She’s also, I might add, a hilarious person and we click very well. We first discovered Emily’s work back in 2021 when she was a finalist in our Inside This Box group exhibition. After being invited to join our stable, Emily’s paintings became hard to hold onto as they quickly started walking out the door with their happy new owners.

Emily’s work is beautiful, unique, skilled and deeply personal. Her natural talent and eye for colour and composition are apparent in each and every work. The juxtaposition of traditionally depicted household items against more modern and unusual elements is at once humorous and intriguing. This body of work is an exploration of what it means to be a working artist and a mother and wife in the domestic environment.

Studio Visit with Jo Fernandez

We are absolutely thrilled to present to you the first solo exhibition by talented local artist Jo Fernandez Mostly Cloudy. Jo has been exhibiting through The Corner Store Gallery for several years since 2019, she is a full time, self-taught artist living just outside of Orange in the beautiful village of Millthorpe. Surrounded by picturesque views of rolling green hills and the lush, Central West landscape, Jo has no shortage of inspiration and subject matter. The ever-changing and tumultuous climate and weather patterns of late have provided a magnificent skyscape for Jo to recapture on canvas in her home studio. She paints and draws meticulously on the canvas, having learnt tips and tricks along the way from attending multiple workshops and short courses.

This magnificent, dramatic body of work Mostly Cloudy is sure to impress, with the exhibition open to the public from November 23rd to December 4th. Pre-sales launch online at 8pm Tuesday November 22nd and we’d love you to join us for drinks with the artist from 6pm Friday November 25th.

Q & A with Raphe Coombes

Raphe Coombes has been part of The Corner Store Gallery family since 2019 when he first submitted a work to our Landscapes Group Exhibition. I fell in love instantly and selfishly acquired the painting for myself, I just had to have it! Since then Raphe’s work has blossomed and developed while maintaining his signature, tactile style. The oil paint is so thick and buttery, you could eat it. Instantly recognisable by his symbolic gestures and repeated patterns and marks. Neon yellow dots of thick oil paint and swirly graphite lines create a unique language that represent the natural environment.

Live, Love, Paint is Raphe’s most recent body of work created at time of great change in his life, having recently become a father.

Live, Love, Paint is on display at The Corner Store Gallery from October 19th to 29th with pre-sales launching online at 8pm October 18th. Join us to celebrate the launch of the exhibition on Saturday November 22nd from 3pm.

Studio Visit with Ana Anderson

Ana Anderson was the winner of our 2021 Mini Series Art Prize, and as a result is having her first solo exhibition with us this September. I’ve loved Ana’s work ever since I first laid eyes on it in early 2021 when she submitted an artwork to our Inside This Box Group Exhibition. Ana became part of The Corner Store Gallery family and has sold out every time we’ve had her work through the gallery.

This highly anticipated body of work includes a series of abstracted landscapes in Ana’s distinct style. The exhibition is titled Exhale and is on display from September 28th until October 8th with pre-sales launching online at 8pm September 27th. We’d love you to join us for Opening Drinks on Thursday September 29th from 6pm to celebrate!

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Q and A with Andrea Hopgood

Hankering for a road trip during recent periods of isolation and lockdown, Andrea Hopgood has created a series of paintings that explore the natural environment and invite the viewer to pause and reflect.

The series of roadside views, symbolise a path forward, a journey ahead, the optimism in “heading out” and the anticipation of returning home.

Throughout a long career of teaching Art in Secondary Schools, Andrea has maintained her own Arts practice from her art studio/gallery in Berwick. Andrea holds weekly classes and workshops and creates works using a wide range of mediums, including; clay, wire, pastel, oil and acrylic.

Q and A with Colleen Southwell

I still pinch myself every time I think about the fact that The Corner Store Gallery was the first ever space to exhibit Colleen Southwell’s work back in 2018. It took some convincing on my behalf for Colleen to brave the public sphere (she’s very modest) and boy-oh-boy am I glad she did. Colleen’s first exhibition sold out before Opening Night and her career as an artist has been on a steep upwards trajectory ever since.

I’m extremely proud to say that Colleen Southwell is a local Orange resident, a true regional talent. Her work is instantly recognisable and unique. The painstaking attention to detail and fine skill demonstrated is something to be revered. It is impossible to view Colleen’s work and not be impressed.

In Safe Keeping is Colleen’s newest solo exhibition and we are so excited to present it to you this November 17th to 28th. Pre-sales launch via our website at 8pm November 16th. Colleen will be in the gallery for most of the exhibition period if you’d like to pop in and meet the artist in person!