2020 Exhibitions
For the Sake of Love
Collaboration between Hussein Alazaat and Firas Majzoub
11 to 31 March 2020
Jacaranda Images proudly presents a unique collaboration between two artists who are passionate about calligraphy and colors.
Calligraphy artist Hussein Alazaat, and architectural designer Firas Majzoub join forces to create watercolor calligraphy using the wet-on-wet technique, sharing a new experience for both of them. They present us with a new perspective for Arabic calligraphy in a contemporary and non-traditional style, to create a dialogue with meaning of the letters, visually and spatially.
‘For the Sake of Love’ is inspired from mystical poetry, divine spinning, love and adoration. It communicates all stages of love through the correspondence between the character of a letter and its symbolism. This exhibition takes us on a journey within the sentiment of the text, the universe of color and the relationship of dissonance and attraction between the color values and the fluidity of watercolors.
‘For the Sake of Love’ is a new presentation of love’s relationship with time by studying the flow of color on paper, revealing layers of meaning in the artwork
Sketching Jordan
Adrian Lockhart
1 to 30 September 2020
Australian artist Adrian Lockhart visited Jordan for 10 days in 2019 to explore and sketch his way around the country.
The resulting paintings, completed upon his return to Australia, show the country as a rich and voluptuous destination, from the mountains of Wadi Rum to the lushness of the valleys of the north. The works on show at Jacaranda Images have a sketch like quality enhanced with rich tones of colour highlighting the focus of each work. Dramatic and dark blue skies over Wadi Rum could be midday or midnight; the green of a Jerash or Ajloun view reflect the richness of springtime when Adrian travelled; and the darkness of the shadowy rocks of Petra combined with earthy tones capture the walk through the Siq perfectly.
Adrian used a mixture of mediums on his original sketches – pen and ink, water colour, even tea bags and the rocks of Petra to create his marks. The exhibition works are these sketches transferred into acrylic and ink paintings, both recognizable and abstracted.
My Mate Dave
A modern interpretation of David Roberts’ Lithographs (part 1)
5 to 31 December 2020
British artist, Ben Playle takes a look at David Roberts’ classic and renowned lithographs giving them a 21st Century update with his interpretation.
In September of 1838, David Roberts, a Scottish artist with no formal training arrived in Alexandria, spending the next 12 months touring and sketching Egypt, Nubia, Jordan, the Holy land and Lebanon.
In Jordan, he sketched the lost city of Petra, which though well known to the Bedouin, was largely hidden to the wider world. With agreement of a local tribe, he was permitted to camp within Petra for five days. Within this time, he managed to complete sketches that would later be worked up in to 14 finished lithographs.
Over the next few years, sketches from Robert’s tour of the Middle East were worked up into a set of large-scale volumes which contained over 240 lithographs. David’s work shared scenes of life in the Middle East that had not been previously seen in Europe. As a result of this success, he became a well-known landscape and architectural artist.
Ben Playle was inspired by David Robert’s lithographs, which show the architecture detail of Petra alongside everyday scenes of rural life. The original 19th century lithographs were black prints on an off-white background. However, many collectors later commissioned artists to add colour.
What started off as a stenciling challenge, has turned into a modern interpretation of David Robert’s masterpieces. Ben’s aim was to capture the light and shadow of the original lithographs, whilst bringing a fresh colour palette and new depths to these intricate scenes. He recreated the soft colour washes of the original pictures with the light touch of a spray can, cutting up to ten layers for each stencil and using over twenty colours.
