Local Balmain artist, Robyn Hammond has combined her love of sketching, architecture and the local area to produce miniature drawings on recycled hardwood timber, some of which is sourced from the oldest buildings.  Each piece is sketched, individually hand coloured and finished to stand as a group or individual piece.  
Robyn has lived on the peninsula for 20 years and has been inspired by the quaint streets, historic buildings and archetypical examples of development since the 1890s.  'Building blocks' is a new series for Robyn and she is pleased to launch it at the Balmain Art Show 2011.

Talya describes her works as "abstract internal landscapes", or depictions of the "inside". Her unique style started at a young age as a compulsion - an obsessive doodle scrawled over jotters and sketchbooks. Her works strive for balance in chaos, and each piece is an exploration of colour and form. She works in varying mediums on paper, wood, plastic and canvas using acrylics, charcoal, pens, Indian inks and pastels.

Roger Lane’s beautiful paintings evoke a sense of happiness and calmness. He achieves this with a combination of design elements, namely colour, line, shape and space. The use of colour is not representational, whilst line and shape are used to alter familiar elements, to make the real, unreal. Space is included to offset the renderings and to evoke a sense of tranquility.

Jane Donaldson resides on rural acreage near Stanthorpe in southern Queensland with her husband and three children and divides her time between creating on the canvas, the garden, the kitchen table and her
family. With an intuitive and irrepressible love of colour and line, Jane’s naïve style of painting belies a carefully considered composition and an appreciation for the sophisticated nature of human interaction and thought.

 Nikki believes the purpose of her painting is to uplift the spirit. Her works are a celebration of the simple things in life which she captures using interesting colour combinations and exciting movement. “Through the pathways I create, I try to combine movement between interwoven shapes and forms. I like to use vibrant colour mixes and layered texture to translate this energy into imagery. I tend to immerse myself in this journey and infuse nature and the diverse cultures that have impacted on me”. A major source of inspiration for Nikki has been her extensive travels overseas whilst the Australian landscape is her dominant influence with its extraordinary sunsets, countryside and coastal views.

Painting is a synthesis of my feelings, inspirations, reactions and struggles; it is a way of breathing in and out.  My inspiration is to create paintings that will stand the test of time. Each painting is either a celebration or a mourning for the transience of the moment.

Brendon Mogg is a successful Sydney painter with numerous solo exhibitions whose paintings are held in private and corporate collections worldwide. Mogg’s highly textural paintings have a sensuous, tactile quality which evocatively capture the vibrancy and development of Sydney in high-key & slightly blended palettes. He works in a range of styles to create large format, abstract paintings in oil on canvas. Using a technique perfected over the last 20 years, Mogg builds up thick layers of oil paint. His latest style of art is a collage technique using previous work.

Meredith Gaston's whimsical, heart felt artworks have found places in galleries and private collections worldwide. Meredith's greatest inspiration is finding the beauty and magic in seemingly simple, every day things. She is passionate about expressing the tenderness of human emotions, and in capturing the way we interact with each other and the vibrant world around us. Meredith's use of bold, warm colours and her simple forms capture a childlike sense of wonderment, and harness the boundless potential of the imagination.

People are what fascinate me most. As a subject to paint it's endless, but it's capturing sensuality, individuality,  and moments that are completely candid that most drives me most as a painter.  The paintings that I've selected for this show all contain the core elements of what I've become known for, bold contemporary colour combinations, strong figurative elements, and a unique sense of style.