CV

RESUME OF GIBSON OWEN;
I started my experience of being surrounded by art when I frequently visited the farm property of one of our prominent stone sculptors on the South Coast of NSW.  This early exposure at ages 8 to 14 years, apparently had a strong element of empowerment and from then on I felt permitted and invited to play a part in the great creative experiment.

At 15 years of age I undertook a metal trade apprenticeship which developed and brought out a competence and confidence in the use of my hands and tools.  This apprenticeship allowed me to learn blacksmithing, welding, fitting and turning and engineering drafting.  This last skill was very important as it developed in me an ability to draw with reference to proper proportions and perspective.  I found that with these two skills I was at least off to a good start in all art work and particularly in drawing and painting.  A sense of proportion in negative and positive shapes was a real assistance in sculpting.

I did not go to art school so I have never learnt the rules that one should not break or even the rules that one should obey.  I was able to rely on competence and confidence with my hands and that sense of proportion and perspective to get involved in acts of creation.

In moving out of a trade environment into the cerebral activities of a practicing lawyer I stayed involved with the need to express myself in the visual arts and studied with Lyndon Dadswell, Arthur Murch and Tom Bass.  I went back often to the sculpture park of the South Coast to experience marble and granite monoliths in the acres and felt very free to follow my need to express myself in the visual arts.

I had a years stay in Sussex, UK, and went to a water-colour course at the local technical college and enjoyed it immensely.  I then worked my way into a solo exhibition with Holdsworth Gallery and then a second solo at the same gallery.  When that gallery closed I had a further two exhibitions with the Private Gallery in Sydney and then a solo exhibition at the Lionel Lindsay Gallery in Toowoomba.

I was at all times also working with metal and wood in creating works and giving them away to friends and family.  This is a very precious avenue of disposal as I never lose contact with these pieces.

My most recent solo exhibition was at Gallery HM and it finished on the 17th May, 2006.  There I exhibited 8 pieces of sculpture.  I am presently concentrating on works in wood and particularly rose wood.