Desert Affair

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday May 19, 2007

with KILMENY ADIE

Jennifer Bult might live on the coast, but her creative inspiration comes directly from the Australian outback.

The Corrimal artist will celebrate her passion for the desert landscape at her solo exhibition which opens on May 22 at Wollongong's De Havilland Gallery.

This is Bult's first solo exhibition in Australia and builds on her involvement in a number of group shows in the region and further afield, and a successful solo display at St Brigitte, France, in 2005.

"This gallery is a reasonably new gallery ... and I've always wanted to have a solo exhibition in Australia and in Wollongong," Bult says.

"It was the perfect opportunity and I had a good body of work together."

Bult came to art later in life and has been exhibiting her works for seven years. The 59-year-old says she thrives on expanding her artistic knowledge and, as a result, is studying ceramics at West Wollongong and Gymea TAFE colleges. She also plans to enrol in a bachelor's degree next year at the University of Wollongong.

"I have to make up for lost time," she says.

"I have a large family and come from a large family, and it's only in the last 10 years I've found myself free to indulge this passion. You have got to make hay while the sun shines."

Her passion is not restricted to one creative outlet, and Bult experiments with painting, printmaking and sculptural ceramics.

"I just can't stop, it's a compulsion," she says.

"But I think about Picasso. He did everything and a lot of artists work in more than one medium. And one overlaps the other. You can use printmaking in ceramics."

In exploring her art, Bult travels all over Australia whenever possible, looking for inspiration in the natural landscape. However, she adds, her favourite destination is Lightning Ridge.

"There's something about the arid outback that does my head in," Bult says.

"The horizon's like looking out to sea. At Corrimal you can look at the ocean right to the horizon and in the outback it's the same, amazing.

"I've always been attracted to the outback. I just love it. It's something about Australia, it's a very special place - the colours, the people, the animals and everything."

Bult's exhibition Australia Solo opens on May 22 and runs until June 3 at the De Havilland Gallery on the corner of Church and Stewart Sts in Wollongong.

© 2007 Illawarra Mercury

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