New to the collection - Margaret Ellen Turner

Another exciting artwork that has recently been added to the Sunshine Coast Art Collection

New to the collection - Margaret Ellen Turner
Margaret Ellen Turner | Remembering Ruby Gap #660 (detail) | 2018 | acrylic on canvas | 140 x 100cm | Sunshine Coast Art Collection, gift of the artist | image: courtesy of the artist

For established Caloundra artist, Margaret Ellen Turner, a week in 2014 spent intensively drawing and visually recording the landscape of the Macdonnell Ranges, near Alice Springs, impressed on her so powerfully, she returned to her Caloundra studio and feverishly created an extensive body of work.

‘ _It was a terrifying exchange of information. Me – in all my human frailty and transience; my unimportance. The land – majestic, enigmatic; totally other._’

The series ‘Remembering Ruby Gap’ of some twenty works was recently exhibited at Caloundra Regional Gallery in the exhibition: ‘Painting Space’ and collectively they captured the enormity of ranges. Turner explains that: ‘ _When I was out there in the landscape drawing, that is not all, or even the most important thing I was about. I was soaking in through all of my senses, the experience of the land - its hugeness, its strength, its age and its constancy._”

Turner created the series of works in 2018 – 2019 and during the 'Painting Space' exhibition, she came forward with a proposition for the Sunshine Coast Art Collection. To our delight, she generously donated two paintings from the exhibition:

Remembering Ruby Gap #660

Remembering Ruby Gap #668

The main source of acquisitions to the Collection are through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program, along with subsequent donations from exhibiting artists at the Gallery like Margaret Ellen Turner, which have helped build the Collection’s holdings as it continues to mature into a strong contemporary Australian art collection for the Sunshine Coast.

One of the donated works: Remembering Ruby Gap #668 is currently on display in the Caloundra Council Chambers on level 3 and can be viewed during business hours.

Margaret Ellen Turner has exhibited extensively in both group and solo shows since the early 1980s and is represented in public art collections nationally and internationally. Widely published in numerous publications and recipient of a number of art awards, Margaret Ellen Turner works out of her Caloundra studio. Find out more.