Entranced by the way light, especially warm slanting light, brings flowers, landscapes and people to life, Beale’s Solo Exhibition of over sixty works include large-scale oil paintings of flowers amongst powerful and nostalgic landscapes, portrait sketches and detailed pen and ink drawings.

Subjects include Paris’s famous Luxembourg Gardens in Spring, café portraits of the characters of the 6th arrondissement in the heart of Paris’s left bank (Rive Gauche), through vertiginous vineyards in Piedmont to moody memories of Sicily. And, of course, a revel of glorious blooms from our spring and summer.

Online catalogue available via the website.

Feature image: Roger Beale AO, 2021, Floriade Poppy Field, Oil on canvas,114cmx152cm Image: Artist supplied

When

The Magic of Light, a Solo Exhibition by Roger Beale AO runs Saturday 30 April to Sunday 29 May.

Gallery hours Wed to Sun 10 am to 4 pm Free Entry, All welcome.

Where

Humble House gallery, 93 Wollongong Street, Fyshwick 2609.

For more information please visit humblehouse.com.au.

About the Artist

Roger Beale is one of Canberra’s better-known artists with numerous solo and group shows since 1984.

He is classically trained (teachers include the late Betty and Roy Churcher, Melville Haysom, John Molvig and the faculty of the Florence School of Art) and paints in a realist style in the European tradition.

His art is held in private and public collections around Australia and the world, including several Ambassadorial residences. Canberra’s famous Ottoman Restaurant had a notable collection of his large flower paintings.

Canberra’s most eminent art critic Professor Sasha Grishin said in his review of Beale’s 2019 Humble House exhibition:

“There is little doubt that Beale is committed to his craft and is passionate about his work and his sense of authenticity to the experience of the place is evident throughout the show. … The strength … lies in sensitive treatment of light hinting at the passing seasons and a certain transience of life in contrast to the permanence of the landscape. Many of Beale’s finest works could be described as mood paintings set within a romantic sensibility. At their best, they are highly evocative and lyrical and hark back to earlier traditions and conventions in art.”

Sasha Grishin, Art Review, Roger Beale: Sun, rain, flowers at Humble House gallery shares passion and beauty, The Canberra Times, October 9 2019

Roger Beale retired as a Portfolio Secretary of Environment and Heritage in 2004 after many years as one of Australia’s most senior public servants to concentrate on his art practice. He served as a member of the UN IPCC, Climate Commissioner, Chair of the ACT Electoral Commission and an environmental adviser to the Chinese government. He led many inquiries and reviews and was a board member of Australia Post, the Federal Airports Corporation, Brisbane Airport Corporation and Connector Motorways.

He paints from a wheelchair as a result of childhood polio and, besides painting, is a member of the Board of the Australian Centre of Christianity and Culture writes for policy journals and advocates for the disabled. Large paintings like the 2m poppies are painted on their side so that they can be reached from the chair.