Rita Hall

Comfort

July 28 - August 27, 2023

exhibition opening Saturday August 5 at 4-6pm

Guest opening speaker Andrew Purvis, Curator at Adelaide Central Gallery

SALA FESTIVAL 2023

Artist Talk Thursday August 10 at 6-7pm

If I could play the piano, I would play Erik Satie’s Gnossienne Number 3 but instead I have made a new series of prints on paper to express my thoughts.

These art works started as a visual response to the arrival of the Covid 19 Pandemic in March 2020. At the time it felt like a puzzling shock, unbelievable, there seemed to be no way to assimilate what it meant or what to do.

Making work was the only way I could ever resolve situations which seemed out of control. I, along with many other people suddenly felt vulnerable, so I read everything, watched TV, listed to the radio, discussed it with others, and finally decided I needed to find some peace from the emotional turmoil.

There was nothing I could do but make new work. I could express in a new way subjects and arrangements which gave me comfort. The simple and ordinary objects in my life and home, familiar and comforting as a starting point. The kettle, the teapot, tools, loved pots and anything normal. Nothing new there, many artists look to their environment to make art, but I also wanted to explore some original techniques I had developed over 20 years previously. But there were to be various tough restrictions I placed on myself. Keep it simple, straight forward, dead pan. Draw only from the objects within the genre of still life. Use no colour at all, only black and white, tones allowed, exploit materials already to hand like ink, rollers, papers, water colours, and no new art shopping. No gratuitous decoration or sentimentality. And, above all, have some fun!  

It seems appropriate to show my new exhibition in my hometown at the Hahndorf Academy.

Rita Hall, October 2021.

Rita Hall, Dancing Scissors II, 2020 collograph watercolour

Rita Hall Bio

Rita Hall is a South Australian artist living and working in the Adelaide Hills. She has conducted a full time professional visual art practice in her home studio since 1976. She holds a Master of Visual Art and has specialised in printmaking, drawing and painting and has taught extensively.

Rita has exhibited widely within Australia and is represented in National Public Collections across the country.

Though varied in subject, her work is easily recognized through a unique visual language developed in her work.