REDinc! and the wonders of expression

the church

the faucet

This is the second year I have gone to see the annual Christmas exhibition which the staff at REDinc. puts together each year. These wonderful pictures are artworks by people of all ages who spend time at REDinc, an organisation originally up by parents to give their own children with disabilities a place to explore art in various workshops. For the past two years I end up buying more art work than I have room to hang in my home. But I kind of fall in love with these things, and it is rare I like many paintings I see everywhere. Thankfully, they are very moderately priced.

I have not posted the sizes but most of the them are quite small, around about 30 X 25 cm, the wonderful black dog is about 40 X 40, and the two striped pictures below are about 50 X 40 cm.

Cheryl Bailey, who runs one of the programs gave me a tour and introduced me to a few 'clients' as they are called. But when I walked into the first room and saw the black dog on a wall I just cracked, and I had to have it. The rest of them I picked off one by one as I walked around the large shed. But the black Chihuahua, spoke to me, I loved it immediately, and isn't this what Art is all about?

The Faucet and the Church (as I have named them) were done by a young plumbing apprentice. These two small paintings are, I believe more original than most things I see (online) in galleries anywhere in the world, and that is not hyperbole (which of course I hate). But in each little painting the colour harmonies are exquisite, especially the one which I have called the Church. It reminds me of something that Paul Klee might have made, or possibly may have wished to paint at least. There is a muted harmony of great sophistication and a remarkable clarity of design.  And I haven't a clue what it really represents except a kind of sophisticated icon, but the important thing is that he had a clue what it means.  

The stripes below are by a fellow named Hunter whom I have met several times at the tennis club on Tuesday nights where his father and me play doubles. He is a friendly young man who adores pizza and watching television while his father plays tennis. A real sweetheart, and he was so very stoked that I bought on just one, but two of his paintings.