The French Door Gallery

Featuring a vibrant program of exhibitions showcasing recent work by Clarence Valley artists in Prentice House.

The gallery launched 'The French Door Gallery' in 2021, which features a vibrant program of exhibitions by Clarece Valley artists. Each month a selected artist will schowcas a recent body of work in Prentice House West Gallery.
C varendorff exhibition

Caroline Varendorff - Captivating Clarence Coast

"These images have been rendered in charcoal for a reason. I have found charcoal to be easy to work with and have enjoyed exploring the shapes and shadows, the positive and negative spaces that are so clearly defined in black and white tones.

Moving to the Clarence Valley at the beginning of 2020 was a real blessing, particularly because its coastal treasures were still reachable during the COVID19 lockdown. Armed with my phone camera, I drove from the Sandon to Brooms Head, Angourie and Yamba. Each place provided something special and gave me plenty of inspiration and of course, something to do while confined. Charcoal was a relatively untried medium for me, but as I explored its mark-making potential I began to think of many more images that could be done with it and found it hard to put the charcoal stick down.

Art was all around me from the time I was born, being the youngest of 5, with 3 of my siblings expressing themselves through visual arts. As a young mother in the 1970's I had the opportunity to attend an Art College in Holland where my appetite for creative expression was heightened by the teachers there. Ceramic sculpture, life drawing and painting were my chosen subjects. Relocating back to Australia, I saw my country through different eyes - the vast sky, the rugged coastline, the uniqueness of the Australian bush.

For the past 25 years I have focused on the way I see, and feel, about my country, (with occasional forays into portraiture and ceramic sculpture) from the uniqueness of the vegetation of the Hawkesbury Sandstone soils around the NSW Central Coast to the luxuriant rainforests on the far north coast. I find myself deeply moved and inspired by the strength and beauty of nature. From the mid ‘90’s I immersed myself in painting and eventually found that I was most interested and stimulated by landscape and nature".

On view in Prentice House West from 10 January to 6 February 2022.

Upcoming French Door artists in 2022
Julie Hutchings: 7 February to 5 March
John Witzig: 7 March to 2 April

Image credits:
Top: Caroline Varendorff Rock Platform,Yamba 2021, charcoal on paper, 100 x 110cm, (detail). Courtesy of the artist.
Homepage square: The French Door logo. Courtesy of TMG Design
Slider: Caroline Varendorff Rock Platform,Yamba 2021, charcoal on paper, 100 x 110cm, (detail). Courtesy of the artist.