The Bas' latest exhibition is a tribute to the hidden artistic talents in the Eurobodalla Shire.
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Ironically, Stephanie McClory also named her exhibition, Hidden, but with reference to the invisible thoughts and emotions of the subjects she paints.
This vulnerability is something Ms McClory encounters every day as a hospital physiotherapist. She feels, sees and knows people intimately. She empathises with her clients through her fingertips. That comes out in art too. Through a close frame and hyper-realist attention to detail, the viewer can tell Ms McClory is close to her subjects, who are mostly her siblings.
For example, Some Days Are Rough, which won the Eurobodalla Prize, as part of the Basil Sellers Art Prize in 2018, captures the vulnerability in the tired eyes of her sister. She looks away, so the viewer feels as though they are intruding on a private moment.
Whisper, the exhibition's featured piece, is intriguing not only because the iris of the woman's eye - painted in a magical rainbow spectrum surrounded a monochromatic palette - looks neutrally at the viewer. But a feature of Ms McClory's approach is her ability to create a depth of field so it feels the three-dimensional characters are inviting you into the frame with them. Her subjects aren't just pained with melancholic or dramatically neutral expressions. As the viewer takes a turn of the room, we experience smiles, warmth, curiosity and energy.
Ms McClory does not hold back from highlighting the genuineness of her subjects and brings them alive with attention to every hair follicle and pore of skin. Looking at each subject, one enters the canvas to experience the moment of subtle or heightened emotion.
Artists and non-artists alike will appreciate the slightly more colourful set of pieces in the exhibition. Ms McClory uses minimal colour and brush strokes on a black background, to take advantage of the human brain's ability to make meaning out of subtle shapes.
Knowing Ms McClory humbly does not like to draw attention to her talents makes one wonder who else in the shire is secretly studying your invisible thoughts with a hyper-realist eye.
Hidden will be displayed at The Bas, Moruya, until October 4. Opening hours: Tuesday - Sunday, 10am - 4pm.