Westpac Bank Ballarat

Dawn just finished exhibiting at Gallery on Sturt and the owner has retained this painting to show off at the Westpac Bank in Ballarat.

It looks terrific hanging at the entrance of the Bank.

Hopefully, this will give more exposure for Dawn's art.

Dawn's artist statement

dawn lim

abstract art and my spirituality

“When I start to paint I have no preconceived idea of what I want to do, just a feeling in my soul that I want to paint. Then I choose some colours and I begin mark making, helping me to create. The technique of mark making was first introduced by The Surrealist Andre Breton. It was called automatic drawing. This method has been invaluable to me, helping me create, not just copy. My paintings are also informed by a few artists, Elizabeth Cummings, Aida Tomescu, Willem De Kooning and Tony Tucson.

I pray before I paint, that I may be inspired and that I may enjoy a spiritual experience while I work. The subjects of my paintings are elusive and take a while before I may see any subject in them at all. They may not mean anything, because they are abstract, but sometimes I find a reflection of my sub conscious, or spirituality within them.

Some are informed by the world around me, such as climate change, lack of morals, or the violence and hopelessness in the world today but of course I also have some light hearted paintings, because after all I believe we are here to have joy.”

Dawn is a Ballarat artist who has lived here for 27 years. She also takes private & group art classes, taking students from where they are at and helping them to move on.

Opening Night at gallery on sturt

Dawn's exhibition at Gallery on Sturt

Dawn is in a small group exhibition at Gallery on Sturt.

First one for 2010. Boy time flys!

The gallery space is quite nice and is in a block of cafes' and pub. The street has alfresco dinning and is a favourite eating spot in Ballarat and hopefully we should get a lot of passing traffic there. See you there.

Leonie

My name is Leonie and I am a current student of Dawn Lim.

I have throughly enjoyed each lesson and look forward to the next.

Since being a student of Dawn's she has not hesitated in sharing with me all she has learnt through her own experience as an accomplished artist. Dawn has not only encouraged me but also given me the confidence to allow my own style to come through with each piece of work. I too would like to encourage anyone who has desired to take art lessons, but never dared, to give Dawn a call.

Leonie has only being with Dawn a little while, but look at her progress. She takes her lessons very seriously and she learns fast. It was very good to know Leonie and she is not afraid to take on the task of a big canvas.

Affordable art show

Dawn put in a couple of her paintings in the Affordable Art Show at the Post Office Gallery of the University of Ballarat, this Christmas.

The show is an annual event for any artist in the area.

It is a nice space because it is right in the middle of Ballarat.

We would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Beaufort Show

Dawn put in a couple of her artwork into the Beaufort Show and one painting came second in the abstract section.

It was only a small exhibition of the local artists. Some of the art were quite good.

Upcoming exhibition is at Gallery on Sturt sometime in Feb 2010.

Wow what happened to the time, 2010 is only around the corner.

Dawn has been busy this year, teaching art classes and individual tutoring. Dawn has also put her art in another website, wonderart.com.au and a german art website too.

Dawn's present webpage comes up in Google first page for the search engine, when you search for original abstract art for sale in Australia. We are quite happy to see this as I have spend a lot of time doing the behind the scenes keywords and webpage, and a lot of money learning about this.

Wonderart website

We have found a wonderful art website to sell our art in addition to our usual website. This is an Australian website. Hopefully this will spread our online presence. Some artists think that advertisement and online websites are not good, or doesn't really do anything much. However, we think that websites are a good thing to have, because they are readily accessed online, and is one more avenue to make known our presence.

Art of giving Charity Art Exhibition

Dawn donated a couple of her paintings to the Art of Giving charity art exhibition.
The money raised will be given to Mind, a mental Health service provider which has supported people recover from mental illness and rebuild their lives.
All the money will go towards developing Mind's Ambassadors of Hope program which will raise awareness of mental health and allow people to communicate about mental illness.

Hybrid sculpture 2009

Last night we went to the Hybrid exhibition. It was so very enjoyable, the host was great. And we listen to Damon's talk. He had a lot of fun using his Travel Award last year. This years sculpture was very impressive especially the bottle tree. There were 61 artists' exhibiting.

Spring paintings

These two new paintings are going into ebay to test the waters.

It would be good to know how they are received at ebay.

Both paintings are done this month.

Pipers by the Lake

Today we went to Pipers by the Lake to see 3 pieces of Dawn's painting that Emma from Arthur Gallery has negotiated with Pipers, to hang the paintings. We are grateful to Emma for helping Dawn to exhibit her paintings at a new venue in Ballarat, and Jen the manager at Pipers choosing Dawn's paintings.

Arhur Gallery warming

Tonight we went to the new location of Arthur Gallery for the opening night of the exhibition by Kat Barrand - 'Concrete Umbrellas'. The drawings were quite good and interesting. The venue was not large, but big enough for one exhibitor, there was quite a bit of wall spaces.

Cliff and Carolyn were there too. Doug, Ann and Loris were there too, Kat is doing her honours year with them I think.

New Paintings 2009

Dawn's new paintings 2009

DROUGHT: Perceptions & Propositions

DROUGHT- Creative Cross Cultural Collaborations. Curated by Lella Cariddi

Tonight we went to the drought exhibition and seminar. Dawn met Bruno Leti, a visual artist & writer, whose work is inspired by the poetry of John Shaw Neilson, and in turn, some one commented that Dawn's work was in a similar vein as Bruno, and finally Dawn met him. Bruno talked about his long collaborative engagement over the years with poets, Chris Wallace Crabbe, Alan Loney and Peter Steele and others.

Art Galleries in Melbourne

As a result of exhibiting at Melbourne Art Show 2009, Dawn was approached by a couple of gallery owners, to exhibit in Melbourne and Geelong.

So this week, we took 12 paintings down to the Elsternwick gallery for approval in our new combo van. The van was quite roomy for the paintings.

Hopefully, Dawn could be exhibiting there.

Graduation

Dawn graduated with a BA (Visual Arts) (Honours) this afternoon at the Historic venue - Her Majesty's Theatre in Ballarat.

It was a wonderful event and they had a march around the City Council Buildings. The weather was good, just a little cooler.

She was thinking about doing a Masters off-campus, she did not get into the Masters this year because they were making everyone do a research project. Not a fair thing for artists, she only got credit for her thesis, but had High Distinction for her paintings. The off-campus at Monash University offers a course work Masters, which would suit Dawn better.

Melbourne Art 2009

This is the second painting sold. Dawn painted this one early 2009.

Dawn made some good contacts with art professionals at the Show and hoped to be able to exhibit in Melbourne.

Dawn's art had very good exposure there, a lot of the visitors liked what Dawn has done.

The Australian public in general do not like or understand contemporary abstract art, but those that do, really enjoyed looking at Dawn's art and commented on how good they were.

Melbourne Art 2009

This painting sold at the Art Show. It was an exciting event for Dawn.

We did not stay overnight in Melbourne, but drove home every night. It was very tiring.