Shirley's imagination not lost
EUMUNDI artist Shirley Strano's images were once described as "sounds" by one of her past teachers, William Ferguson, from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He could hear the sound of her imagination.
Maybe he was hearing the sounds Strano hears as she creates her highly patterned linocut prints in her bush studio: the sounds of the bush, birds and insects of the forestry reserve that surround her home and that have become the subject of her recent focus.
Strano is an accomplished draughtswoman, as evident in her dramatic use of black and white.
Her linocut prints are strong and her drawing skill reveals her love of working en plein-air, which simply means to work directly from the subject rather than working from photographs.
Strano's artwork is included in permanent corporate and regional gallery collections and private collections in the US, Australia and Japan.
Her goal is to make drawings and linocuts of the plants of the Sunshine Coast and hinterland, with its ancient volcanic plugs and rhythmical landscapes.
At present, her work is about her garden and represents a break from past subjects.
On view from now to May 19, The Sound of Imagination is a beautiful lyrical record of her art.
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