Traffic Jam Galleries Presents Julie Hutchings,Tracy Dods, Hugh McLachlan

Tracey Dods 'Umbrella Insurance'. Acrylic on canvas. 107 X 184cm
Tracey Dods ‘Umbrella Insurance’. Acrylic on canvas. 107 X 184cm

The new exhibition at the Traffic Jam Galleries features the vibrant works of three very exciting artists.

Tracy Dod’s paintings come across as strange and eerie. She lives in the Blue Mountains and her intention with her artworks is to illuminate the human condition. Haunting, melancholic, yet filled with life, her paintings are mostly small to medium in size and whilst figurative, the person always seem to be facing away from us so we never get to properly see their faces.

Somewhat dreamlike, they all appear to be older, professional men. There is an aura of loneliness and melancholia, and a longing to return to childhood. They all seen walking along the beach/into the sea, and some have a childish element…Men seen dragging a toy cart behind him as in ‘Undue Influence’ or carrying a yellow bucket ‘Offsetting Balance‘.  The wonderful, swirling lines emphasise how windblown the men are, even, at times, drenched with rain, as in the painting, ‘Umbrella Insurance’.

Hugh McLachlan’s wonderful silver sculptural work could perhaps be described as ‘dripping’ with a surrealistic influence, or even from  from another dimension or a parallel universe.

Stones and silver are combined, with wonderful line and form, on standing white blocks with a Zen like aura, as in the work  ‘Slow Flow 3’.  His work with jewelry was not part of this  particular exhibition.

McLachlan  is a Tasmanian based artist. He trained as a gold and silversmith at RMIT and is represented in numerous collections including the NGA and has participated in many solo and joint exhibitions both in Australia and overseas. He has been featured in several magazine articles. His work has also been featured in Bondi’s annual  Sculpture by The Sea.

An increasingly important element of his work is the polished steel surface- marine grade stainless steel highly polished to a mirror finish. In McLachlan’s work form is contained, creates space and simultaneously via the apparent illusion of the reflected surface explores how light influences our perception of the world. A couple of the works are on the wall or free standing. There are also six wonderful swirling, vibrant large paintings of water in works such as ‘Roaring Forties’ 1 to 4, and ‘Waterfalls’ 1 and 2.

Julie Hutchings lives and works in Grafton. She has won numerous awards both locally and nationally and has been exhibiting on a professional level since 2001. Her work, predominately figurative, seems delicate and haunted, almost dream like, full of wistful childhood memories, particularly of horses and the circus, in works such as  ‘Circus Pony ‘ and ‘Contented Stillness’.  Her large paintings swirl with life, and feature vibrant composition, complete with wonderful, fluid lines and colour. Hutchings describes her works as ‘reflections  of memory, myth and a little magic.’

This current exhibition of the  works of these talented three artists is on show at the Traffic Jam Galleries until the 5th November.