The Sea House Gallery: At Glenelg, in the Adelaide Coast region of South Australia
The day Postcards visited the Sea House Gallery at Glenelg some girls from Cabra College were busy making mosaic tabletops - one of the many activities you can take up at the Gallery.
At first glance it looked as though the girls were preparing homemade pizzas and to some extent, the process is quite similar. After preparing the base you select your ingredients and arrange them in a delicious mix of colour and form. Some of the girls opted for strawberries, others for fish designs and, of course, vibrant flowers are always popular. The gallery’s Gill Higgins and Jane Smeets are always on hand with some useful advice too.
“Really with mosaics the simpler the better. Simple shapes and simple colours incorporated in the border is going to enhance the whole thing.”
Soon the girls' designs take shape and the enthusiastic chatter is music to the ear of any teacher, trying to instill a passion for art.
The tabletops are made on MDF board and need to be sealed if used outdoors not that any of the girls plan to hand them over to the family courtyard. Most of the girls planned using their finished tables in their bedrooms.
During school holidays Gill and Jane run more classes for youngsters. But often it’s the mums who fill the sessions at The Sea House. Like the popular mask making classes.
“Making a mask is a bit like making a pie. You have your crust and then you have your filling as newspaper. Then you put your lid on top and we blend that together and start looking at the features of the mask.”
Many of the completed masks find a spot outside as outdoor garden features.
“The workshops are fantastic because it's an opportunity for women to come together and be creative. The garden art is very special because it is a very achievable art for women to do. And gentlemen - we have a few men brave it. And we’d like more.”
Gill and Jane estimate about eighty-five percent of people taking their courses have no experience.
“They walk through the door saying I'd love to be able to create something but I can’t. I'm not the least bit artistic. I can't do a thing. That's the most commonly said thing to us.”
But at the Sea House Gallery, anybody can have a go. Perhaps even at making gold gilded masks.
“Gilding has been used over the centuries. It adds a whole new look. Using a really rich gold leaf and using a paler gold leaf it just looks wonderful.”
Or maybe a goddess water feature is more to your liking. We admired one water feature with a mosaic background incorporating a face and even a chicken.
“A lot of people come in and say why would you want to put a chicken on a head? A lot of African art and lot of tribal art are a symbol and to me chickens are to do with fertility. And having three children and a lot of women who come to us have children… I just love to express that side of it without being too obvious.”
Some blokes are slowly unmasking their creative side too.
“They love it. They get an insight into the women. But we haven’t got them making the Goddess masks yet. They haven't tapped into their feminine side enough,” laughed Jane.
For Michelle Bown, it's been a case of pushing the bounds.
“For me just being able to do something I haven't done before and actually getting results and knowing that anything is possible.”
The Sea House runs a range of workshops throughout the year and extra classes during school holidays.
The Sea House
Address: Shop1, 1-5 Sussex St, Glenelg, South Australia
Phone: 61 (0)8 8295 7922
Fax: (08) 8295 7962
