An exhibition of painting and sculpture by Janice Pryde and Cam Crossley

At the ART POST - 22 Channon Street Gympie 5 - 22 June 2024

The artist couple Janice Pryde and Cam Crossley share their lives and their love of art. The relationship is one of mutual inspiration for each other’s process of creativity. They work to find the elemental, listening for the meaning within that is the core, the seed and the heart.

The elemental power of Australia’s unique flora and fauna is so vastly different from that of the UK where Janice was born. She enjoys exploring this in her artworks. Using different techniques including collage and photo transferring in a semi-abstracted way, along with the elements of simple pattern, design and colour are a strong feature and the differences speak of the connection and elemental in all things. We all love and feel the benefits of being in nature, surrounded by forest or on the edge of the ocean. The elemental connects us, anchors us whilst simultaneously offering promise and mystery.

Once when discussing sculpture with a friend, the friend said to Cam, “If we can’t make work about love we should go and lay bricks!”. This proved both profound and concise. Cam’s sculptures all speak about this in some way; love for a partner, family or community but also for country, for nature, for life itself. It is the simplest most elemental of things that ultimately carry the deepest essential meaning and are the basic inspiration for his work. The bronze works in this exhibition are about the feeling of walking into the ocean, the breeze on our face, our search for identity amidst the chaos. The ceramic works collect iconic forms of the Sunshine Coast Cam and Janice call home – the Glasshouse Mountains, the sea, Mudjimba Island, the sun – into whimsical assemblies. These are the elemental things they both hold dear.