About the Art Gallery

Blue Poles Contemporary Art Gallery is situated in the beautiful hinterland village of Byabarra, some 35-40 minutes drive inland from Port Macquarie. Admission is FREE.

Summer Selections II - Current Art Exhibition
On show until 30 March 2010

NB: WE ARE CLOSED FOR THE MONTH OF FEBRUARY
and reopen on Thursday 4th March

OPEN: Thursday to Sunday
10 am - 4 pm, except Christmas Day

The new contemporary art exhibition features renowned local artists Scott Jackson, Nigel Gillespie, Lucy Car, Colleen Farlow, Elizabeth Haddad, Françoise Sauvère and renowned glass artist, Karen McPhee. This vibrant, colourful and somewhat eclectic even avant garde show is a must see. All art works are for sale. In addition, limited edition framed and unframed prints as well as miniature oil paintings from Scott Jackson are available.

Blue Poles currently presents 6 - 8 exhibitions annually which mostly feature NSW North Coast contemporary artists.
 

Blue Poles' history: Built by Frith and Alan Peters, Blue Poles Contemporary Art Gallery has presented art exhibitions for over a decade for the appreciation and enjoyment of the community. The cathedral ceiling, northern light, white walls and polished wooden floor is an ideal and beautiful space in which to view exhibitions.

In addition to the art gallery, Blue Poles offers luxurious accommodation, superb cuisine and sublime views: it is simply an unforgettable experience, bringing art and people together in a glorious setting.

Contemporary Artwork on Display

Thematic or group exhibitions span the gamut including paintings and drawings in all media on various grounds; sculpture; photography, glass art as well as ceramic and wire art.

Opening Hours

Thursday to Sunday: 10 am - 4 pm, except Christmas Day
 

Artist Biographies

Scott Jackson exhibits widely. He has been an artist for 20 years, full time for the past six years. He works mainly in oils and acrylics, with the odd watercolour.

He enjoys using painting knives and brushes as well as underpainting colours and textures for the interesting effects to come through to the upper layers of paint through the use of "sgraffito".

He was invited to exhibit at the Florence Biennale, Florence Italy in 2007, and was accepted to exhibit for 2009. Jackson feels lucky to have the bush, beach and sea nearby as inspiration for creating paintings. Born in Brisbane, he lives on the mid north coast.


Lucy Car loves, and has always loved, painting with bright colours, layering paint to create an enjoyable colour combination with a happy subject matter. She rarely paints on serious topics, but instead tries to make an audience laugh or smile.

Car spent her early years in Wagga Wagga; studied medicine in Port Macquarie, and has now moved to Newcastle for her internship. She’s hoping to paint works on an ever larger and more colourful scale!

Car says ‘I’ll always love depicting exaggerated and ridiculous figures, where bright paint can be thrown about and people can be entertained!’ Her colourful works can be viewed on lucycar.com


Colleen Farlow is inspired by the wonder of nature and intrigued by its complexity; her works span the media gamut.

She engages energetic composition and form with a palette of dynamic hues, rich in texture and colour, depicting through metaphor and allegory her fascination of the human condition.

Farlow’s works embody a heritage of vitality, colour and empathy ... a visual interpretation of the musical rhythm she feels of the imprint of Africa, her birthplace.

In her youth she studied then later worked in performance arts before venturing into fine arts. She studied ceramics and fine arts first at Hornsby then Wagga Wagga TAFE and Charles Sturt University. Her works encompass painting, drawing, hand built primitive fired ceramics, sculpture and printmaking.


Nigel Gillespie is primarily influenced by the broad, open spaces of the Australian rural landscape, juxtaposed with its nooks and crannies.

The visual impact of the landscape’s geometry is Gillespie's inspiration, while his emotive response draws in a collage of associated memories and ideas relative to the work.

The natural landscape is a catalyst, he says: ‘a vehicle which takes me down the runway. Painting is for me the fulfillment, contentment and satisfaction of leaving the tarmac… my aim is to lessen the distance of the runway and to fly more often.’


Elizabeth Haddad studied fine arts and ceramics at Meadowbank TAFE in the 80s and since then has exhibited extensively, winning many awards along the way.

She has an extensive knowledge of art movements and a strong background in life drawing as well as in the application of line form and colour.

Painting is both a joy and a frustration for Haddad; frustration when she’s not able to paint or achieve a desired result; but a joy when she does.

Her inspiration comes from the natural world both conscious and unconscious. Her interpretation of a contemporary world is not necessarily constrained by reality. Haddad lives in Diamond Beach.


Françoise Sauvère was Born in Sénégal, Dakar. Sauvère spent her early childhood on the Indonesian island of Java and France, prior to migration to Australia at age 12.

She studied colour, etching, printing and drawing at the Assenza Meleschule in Basel. The endless fascination of colour and the play of light motivates her to look at nature with more attention, immersing herself in the visible.

Her continual source of inspiration is the varied and contrasted lands of Europe and Australia. Subtle representations of nature can be discerned in Sauvère’s work, which allows the viewer to perceive the world in another manner.