By Tyler Wright
The Sherbrooke Art Gallery is now home to a series of realistic oil paintings inspired by the landscape of the eastern suburbs of Melbourne and Europe.
Patricia Galli’s ‘Drawn to Light’ exhibition was launched on Saturday 5 August, and features paintings of scenery at Sherbrooke Forest, Yarra Glen, and even the coastal landscape of Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula.
Galli was chosen as Sherbrooke Art Society’s Artist of the Year in 2023, after entering all three of the society’s annual exhibitions.
She also won the ‘Best 9 x 5’ work in the Small Packages exhibition as well as the ‘Mavis Hill Award – Best in Show’ in the Spring Exhibition along with several Highly Commended throughout 2022.
“I’ve exhibited a lot before in group situations, but never on my own, so it was a challenge,” Galli said of her recent exhibition.
“I’m predominantly a plein air painter, following in the tradition of our Impressionist artists like Streeton and Roberts and McCubbin – they were all plein air painters.”
Galli began her journey as an artist after studying fine art and design at university, before changing trajectory to focus design in the fashion industry and completing a Diploma of Arts and Design at RMIT University.
She eventually established her own design and dressmaking business; finding a way to channel her inner creative.
“I was doing mainly all the embroidery and the beading that go into wedding dresses,” she said.
“From there I got married, started a family, so I had to leave work.
“When I left work, I started doing workshops in between having kids and started painting more seriously, started exhibiting and then eventually even teaching.”
Pre-Covid, Galli was travelling with a group of artists every year to Italy and France to paint.
Inspiration for Galli’s paintings, featured in her recent exhibition, include the environment at the Sherbrooke Forest and Yarra Glen; as well as Europe and the coast of Melbourne.
“I live in Warrandyte, so there’s a lot of the river, and I do have friends that I paint with who live up in the mountains near Sherbrooke Gallery,” she said.
“I also have a holiday place at Dromana, so you’ll see a lot of beach scenes as well.”
True to the title of her current exhibition, Galli said she is always drawn to the light in her subject.
“That’s what I try to bring across; the mood that the light creates in the landscape.
“Painting outdoors, you’re experiencing what the landscape experience, so I’m trying to paint not just what I see, but what I feel.”
Galli said after viewing the exhibition, which opened on Saturday 5 August, people have noted how moody her works are.
“There was a young girl that came with her family to see on the opening day, she was 13 or 14, and her reaction to one of my paintings was just so rewarding to me.
“Here’s a young girl who’s got no background in art, but was so moved by one of my paintings that her father actually ended up buying it for her; and to me, to have a young person have a piece of fine art hanging in her bedroom wall rather than a poster or something, really gave me a lot of joy, because I’m thinking ‘she’s been touched by something.’
“I’m just hoping that my work touches someone… I had quite a few paintings sold during the opening, and I hope that it just brings a little bit of joy and beauty into their lives; because now more than ever, we need a bit of beauty in our lives.”
The ‘Drawn to Light’ exhibition will be open to the public until Sunday 27 August at the Sherbrooke Art Gallery, which is located at 62 Monbulk Road in Belgrave.
The gallery is open from Friday to Monday from 11am to 3pm.
