By Romy Stephens
Sherbrooke Art Gallery will be home to high-quality oil and pastel paintings next month, with the work of Olinda artist Maxwell Wilks on display.
An exhibition featuring Mr Wilks’ work will be launched on 7 March in conjunction with a demonstration and discussion of pastel painting.
Mr Wilks is a highly accomplished artist that has been working in oils and pastels since 1982.
During his time painting, he has travelled across the country to teach and hosted over 50 solo exhibitions.
He follows the representational style of painting and when creating landscapes, typically paints from his subject to give his work a fresh and immediate quality.
“The skill of this way of painting is to understand what you’re looking at and how to paint it in a simplified method, yet viewers still understand what I’m trying to paint,” Mr Wilks said.
“It’s a bit impressionist.
“A total painter allows the viewer to take some part in interpretation.”
As a resident of the Dandenong Ranges for 20 years, Mr Wilks’ work has often been inspired by his surroundings.
“My wife and I both like this area, we live in an old 1920s house with an old English garden,” he said.
“It’s big (his studio) and it’s got great light and so working here every day is a dream.
“I think the Dandenongs are a beautiful place, certainly for painters, it’s very inspiring to paint here.”
Mr Wilks was formerly a Council member of the Victorian Arts Society, elected as a Fellow of the Society and was also Chairman of the Twenty Melbourne Painters Society.
His exhibition will run until 22 March and will include landscapes and a few still life paintings.
Some of the featured works were painted overseas in the United Kingdom and France.
For more information, visit www.sherbrookegallery.com.
