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Ceramic Break Sculpture Park had the pleasure to host a show
by local Croppa Creek Bowling Club manager and Kamilaroi / Bundjalung artist Mark
Gibson: ‘Thinawan: Our Land Our Animals’.
Thinawan is Kamilaroi for emu, a nickname Mark got when he was a fast
track and field sprinter in school. The
exhibition opens Sunday June 7th following the Myall Creek
Memorial Day on June 6.
Mark Gibson says in his artist profile: I was born on the common of Moree in 1962; I
was the middle child of thirteen children.
I was born to poverty and a very violent father. When I turned fourteen, I ran away from home
and started travelling and working all over Australia. It was not until I had my own family that I
returned to my home town of Moree after 25 years. It was then that I started painting and putting my life
experiences on canvas as I have seen so much of this vast land and its
beautiful animals.
Mark has always sketched and drawn cartoons and has shared
his talent, including a year giving weekly lessons in cartoon drawing at his
daughter’s school. It wasn’t until he returned to Moree with his family that a
chance request “to do a couple of paintings” for a friend of his then boss, led
him to making his art the focus of his life and has been painting seriously for
three years now. In that time he has had an impressive number of shows and many
of his paintings have been sold to private collectors both in Australia and
overseas.
Thinawan: Our Land Our Animals features Australian reptiles,
fish and animals in their unique environment.
Mark paints using a range of strong colours to convey his “life experiences
on canvas.’ The result is impressive as Mark draws the viewer into his
narratives.
Mark’s two young daughters, Kalah and Courtney who are 12
and 13 years old will also be exhibiting with their father. Mark says they wanted to paint when they saw
what he was doing and he encouraged them.
It seems that the artistic gene runs deep in Mark’s family and he has
several cousins and nephews who are also artists.
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