Introduction
Living and working in regional Australia is a joy for many artists, who find themselves without distractions, and surrounded by their subject matter, boundless space and skies. Missing however from the life of the regional artist is the happenstance of proximity: to galleries and museums, the opportunity to engage with peers, to seek and receive critical attention, and to make good on opportunities as they present themselves.
The answer for some is a constant back and forth, travelling between city lights and the bush. For others, the answer is to leave forever, or to seek and find sustenance in place.
In recent years Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in the Eastern Riverina has sought to support artists in place through its Regional Artist Development (RAD) program, involving exhibition opportunities, mentored residencies, master workshops, and talks program. Each year the Gallery also offers the opportunity for one exceptional regional artist to work with a metropolitan based curator over a six-month period. The artist receives structured critical attention as they work to achieve a new body of work to be exhibited in our Margaret Carnegie Gallery. In 2023 this opportunity was offered to painter Julia Roche.
Well known to the Gallery as an active member of the Riverina’s creative community, Julia Roche has been practicing as a professional artist for 15 years. Eager to grow in her practice, the Gallery arranged in 2023 for her to participate in peer-to-peer mentoring with West Australian artist Anna Louise Richardson. The mutual benefits of this engagement led to Julia accepting our further invitation to work with Sydney based painter and curator Dr Hayley Megan French. In doing so, Julia also accepted the inherent risk of opening herself and practice to the close attention of another’s eye. And so, over the many months, never veering from her subject matter and vocation – to paint the night sky and the land she loves and knows so well, Julia’s work has leapt forward; to be now as a poet might write, gestural and loose – it is all place and feeling, warm earth, clouds and swirling galaxies above.
We applaud the risk, we applaud the result.
Dr Lee-Anne Hall
Director, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
March 2024
Living and working in regional Australia is a joy for many artists, who find themselves without distractions, and surrounded by their subject matter, boundless space and skies. Missing however from the life of the regional artist is the happenstance of proximity: to galleries and museums, the opportunity to engage with peers, to seek and receive critical attention, and to make good on opportunities as they present themselves.
The answer for some is a constant back and forth, travelling between city lights and the bush. For others, the answer is to leave forever, or to seek and find sustenance in place.
In recent years Wagga Wagga Art Gallery in the Eastern Riverina has sought to support artists in place through its Regional Artist Development (RAD) program, involving exhibition opportunities, mentored residencies, master workshops, and talks program. Each year the Gallery also offers the opportunity for one exceptional regional artist to work with a metropolitan based curator over a six-month period. The artist receives structured critical attention as they work to achieve a new body of work to be exhibited in our Margaret Carnegie Gallery. In 2023 this opportunity was offered to painter Julia Roche.
Well known to the Gallery as an active member of the Riverina’s creative community, Julia Roche has been practicing as a professional artist for 15 years. Eager to grow in her practice, the Gallery arranged in 2023 for her to participate in peer-to-peer mentoring with West Australian artist Anna Louise Richardson. The mutual benefits of this engagement led to Julia accepting our further invitation to work with Sydney based painter and curator Dr Hayley Megan French. In doing so, Julia also accepted the inherent risk of opening herself and practice to the close attention of another’s eye. And so, over the many months, never veering from her subject matter and vocation – to paint the night sky and the land she loves and knows so well, Julia’s work has leapt forward; to be now as a poet might write, gestural and loose – it is all place and feeling, warm earth, clouds and swirling galaxies above.
We applaud the risk, we applaud the result.
Dr Lee-Anne Hall
Director, Wagga Wagga Art Gallery
March 2024
-
Julia RocheAt peace with disorientation, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas198 x 152 cm$11,800 -
Julia RocheThe lightness of the night , 2024oil & mixed media on canvas152 x 198 cm$11,800
-
Julia RocheThe golden hour, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas198 x 152 cmSold
-
Julia RocheGin and tonic of the night, 2024oil & mixed media on canvas198 x 152 cmSold
-
Julia RocheI will follow you into the dark, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas198 x 152 cmSold
-
Julia RocheHeavy sky resting, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheA record of the wind, 2024oil & mixed media on canvas152 x 198 cmSold
-
Julia RocheA heightening of other senses, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheWhen our eyes adjust, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RochePeeping moon spilling light, 2024oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheThe trees are called by the storm, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas198 x 152 cmSold
-
Julia RocheHighlights and low light, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheRemembering the moon, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheA night dance, 2023oil & mixed media on canvas150 x 150 cm$8,500
-
Julia RocheHot, windy and full of butterflies, 2024oil & mixed media on cold pressed oil paper130 x 139 cmSold
-
Julia RocheCollective memory in the light of day, 2024oil & mixed media on cold pressed oil paper130 x 139 cmSold
-
Julia RocheBreak away I, 2023oil & mixed media on cold pressed oil paper56 x 76 cmSold
-
Julia RocheBreak away II, 2023oil & mixed media on cold pressed oil paper56 x 76 cmSold
-
Julia RocheBreak away III, 2023oil & mixed media on cold pressed oil paper56 x 76 cm$2,600
