SOUTH AMERICAN WINTERLUDE EXHIBITION

at

Jenny Pihan Fine Art Gallery

www.jennypihanfineart.com.au

12 - 21 October 2007,

ALVARO CASTAGNET, NIC CANOSA, PATRICK CARROLL, HERMAN PEKEL,

JOSEPH ZBUKVIC

"It is a fact that almost everyone interesting, appealing, melancholy, memorable, odd, seems at one time or another, after many days and much life, to have gravitated to Venice...." Henry James

Poignant prose! Premonition? As the onlookers observed the arrival of the Winterlude group in Piazza San Marco on a cold November morning in 2004, ankle deep in 'acqua alta', painting Venice, one might have thought Mr. James' words a very insightful and apt assessment of the "gringos" from Australia.

Although it surely would not have been possible for him to know that the very human qualities he espoused in his writing were indicative of the idiosyncrasies of the individuals who banded together to form Winterlude on a cold June evening in Bathurst, NSW, Australia in 1997. Charles Sturt University in Bathurst provided the fertile ground for the group to grow when it offered positions to its members, as art tutors for the summer and winter schools. However it was the fraternity that flowered in the after class activities - the song singing and socializing, that bonded friendships and gave birth to the Winterlude painting safaris.

Quite a large number of artists attended the first painting trip to Bathurst in the winter of 1997. However, time, tide, turbulence, taciturnity and entropy all played their part in revealing the resilient nucleus, the faithful five, who now make up the group. Nicholas Canosa, Joseph Zbukvic, Patrick Carroll, Alvaro Castagnet and Hermán Pekel continue to endure as they celebrate their gifts and friendship and love of painting.

Venice Winterlude was mooted as a dream viaggio many times over the years since the group’s inception and even now as we reflect on its reality it still seems like a dream. Did we actually live and paint together in Venice for 10 days? Was it really us who tramped the calles and campos day and night seeking out subjects by day and stagioni pizzas by night? Did one painter borrow a busker's guitar to sing an Elvis song at a sidewalk café? Which member of the group sang Italian opera loudly and badly from a góndola on the Grand Canal?

Hard work, hard play, mutual love and respect, a sense of humour and much madness mixed with a passionate need to paint have all played their pan in keeping the Winterlude Group together.

Venice Winterlude is a reality and the painters who make up the group find themselves in accord with Henry James' verdict on Venezia as we also found Venice, '.. something that no other place could give."

Patrick Carroll, February 2005