Last month we wrote about partners-in-art Derek and Jan’s blossoming love of painting and digital imagery. This month their passion is beginning to get noticed, with their work available to view at an exhibition at the Age of Fishes Museum. Derek Maitland and Jan O’Neill settled in Canowindra two and a half years ago after a three-decade international journey producing travel magazines and corporate videos for some of the world’s top brand companies. Derek is a painter and both he and Jan are digital image artists, taking their photography and manipulating it to develop them into creative and culturally relevant works of art. The blades of a lone, disused agricultural wind pump become an image called “Memorium” – one of a series of works in tribute to all the old antique farm machinery and other rusting equipment dotting the rural heartland. A spread of poppies is transformed into an almost magical image of radiant light and multi-coloured, intriguing new forms. “Digital imagery, even though computerised, requires great skill and creativity – starting with the original photography and commanding the whole complex process through to the finished artwork,” says Derek. “The results reflect how striking this new-age art genre is becoming.”
Derek and Jan are currently featuring their works on their Facebook page “Art Alive” and are in the process of designing and posting an Art Alive website. They are also developing their own pop-up art gallery, displaying their paintings and digital imagery at their home in Canowindra. Their new exhibition at the Age of Fishes is open to the end of April and includes hot-air balloon artworks by Derek and Jan to coincide with the spectacular annual Canowindra Balloon Challenge and Balloon Glow opening this year. For more information contact Derek Maitland on 0406 316 612.