DR ELIZABETH Arthur, local fine art consultant and valuer, is delighted to be hosting the first exhibition at her Hamilton gallery, Elizabeth Arthur Fine Art, after the impediment of lockdowns in recent years, with well-known oil on canvas artist, Suzanne Corbett.

Ms Corbett is a recent migrant to Hamilton but her journey as an artist began in the riverside setting of Heidelberg, a landscape of trees and slopes, river flats and stony boulevard.

As a child, it was there that she was encouraged to pursue beauty and originality by the like-minded Heidelberg community who were interested in a modern movement of landscapes, painting, architecture and furnishing.

“There was this energy,” she said.

“The ‘social fabric’ was one of confident exploration and belief - it was provident - and art had a sound place in that world.”

Now living in western Victoria, Ms Corbett draws inspiration from the vast stretches of distance beneath a great hemisphere of sky.

“Here, I find a vivid and particular quality,” she said.

“(It) is, in itself, a powerful field of expression and mood.

“While I divide my time between interests of interior event (as subjects) and the outside world, I see these stretches of distance as offering a reflective prospect within.”

Ms Corbett, who also goes by Aimee A‘quinta, pursued an art education in painting and sculpture at RMIT, before taking up the teaching profession in art subjects for many years.

She then undertook further study in History of Art at Latrobe University.

Ms Corbett’s observations and perspectives from her time travelling have also been a key influence in her work, and inspired her exhibited paintings, private commissions, and low relief sculptural work.

“My times of travel … my personal study tours, have been for me, a great resource in observations, experience and realisations, and so many perfect moments,” she said.

Ms Corbett’s exhibition will be opened by her friend, Saraid Banahan, a sculptor and multimedia artist based in Melbourne (Naarm).

Ms Banahan has many years in the art book publishing industry, including with Thames and Hudson, global publishers of illustrated books on visual arts, as well as previously in her own arts specialising book shop in South Yarra.

Presently, Ms Banahan works at Latrobe College of Art and Design (in marketing and administration) and studies fine art at RMIT.

She has a wide range of connections throughout the multi-faceted world of art and the contemporary event.

Among Ms Banahan’s many fortes is photography, in which she is professionally trained. 

She said it is, and has consistently been, a key factor and support to works, and to a continuing interest in the abstract element of time.

“It enlivens and gives the world of art breadth and expression,” Ms Banahan said.

Elizabeth Arthur Fine Art displays early and contemporary Australian paintings, prints and drawings, a small selection of English and European works, contemporary sculptures, and a fine selection of collector’s Persian rugs.

Suzanne Corbett’s exhibition ‘Inside Out’ will open at Elizabeth Arthur Fine Art at 35 Carmichael Street, Hamilton on November 25 at 6pm.