General News
4 October, 2024
New exhibition at Gallery 127
Gallery 127’s newest exhibition by local artist Lewis McGregor aims to be “a celebration” of the innate elegance of humankind.
The exhibition, titled Human Beauty, is an amalgamation of two years of life drawings, often known as figure drawing and is the sketching of humans in various positions and details.
All artworks in the showcase have been completed within 20 minutes, with some sketches attempting to capture a poser’s movements every one to three minutes.
Each piece has been left untouched after the 20 minutes, with mistakes left on the page for all to see.
Mr McGregor said the art form is a unique and peaceful way to showcase the “movement, vitality and emotion” of human life.
“No matter your age, gender or culture, everyone is beautiful and this [exhibition] is simply a celebration of that,” he said.
“I’m simply trying to demonstrate what can be done if you just work fast and instinctively.
“I used to do landscapes of horses and dogs and I would spend hours on it — a while ago I tried to do someone’s portrait and it was good but there is a problem that all artists have where you can overwork things.
“Some of the value in this is to have the freedom to know that it isn’t perfect — you can see the mistakes but it’s alright.
“It’s like in a concert where if a violinist has played a wrong note, they can’t go back and repeat it, you have to keep going with the beat.”
Avoca Community Arts and Gardens president Hugh Forster said the exhibition is a welcome addition to the gallery.
“It’s our first life drawing exhibition that we have had so it’s a great opportunity to present these to the locals — when I saw this work come in I was quite thrilled to see the range and quality of work,” he said.
“I hope visitors feel an appreciation of all the skills involved in drawing a human being and I hope some budding artists will look for us to request some life drawing classes here which is highly likely.
“The exhibition will be a wonderful addition to the Kaleidoscope, hopefully, Mr McGregor will have some art in the art show alongside art makers who will be having their stalls around the gallery.”
Human Beauty at Gallery 127 on 13-15 York Avenue in Avoca begins today, October 4 and is open Friday to Monday from 11 am to 4 pm until Monday, October 28.